Government Advertises £500 Million Contract to Manage Illegal Immigrant Reception Centres

A Border Force vessel brings in a group of illegal immigrants following a small boat incident in the English Channel in Dover, Kent, on Feb. 25, 2024. Gareth Fuller/PA Media

The government is advertising a contract worth more than £500 million to manage two illegal immigrant reception sites in Kent for at least six years.

The tender document published on Friday on the government website says the contract will involve managing services at the Home Office’s Disembarkation and SOLAS (Saving of Lives at Sea) centre at Western Jet Foil in Dover, where immigrants are taken after being picked up by Border Force or other rescue services in the English Channel. The provider will also be managing the Manston Reception centre near Ramsgate, where the arrivals are processed.

The estimated total value is £521.3 million and the notice is split into two lots. The larger of the two is the operational management of Western Jet Foil and the Manston centre, worth £462.6 million, and the other being for the provision of health care services, at a value of £58.7 million.

Operational management services outlined include canteen provision and catering, transport, administration, security and guard services, building and facilities management, and cleaning.

The new Labour government had earlier indicated that it was planning on upgrading infrastructure at Manston, writing in an update on the government website on Sept. 10 that it was going to “creat[e] a purpose built reception centre that will replace the current facilities on the same area of the site.”

The new bid document says the aim of the services “is to provide a safe and secure environment, where Border Force can register and process individuals arriving in the UK on small boats” from across the Channel.

Plans for 10 Years

Services could be required for up to 10 years at the sites. Details of the contract say that both lots will be awarded for initial terms of six years, with an option to extend for up to an additional four 12-month periods, with the extension values for the operational management and health care services being £90.5 million and £11.6 million a year, respectively.

However, the document says the contract will be subject to “break clauses,” which would be applied “in the event that, as per UK Government policy, the need for the services is successfully reduced over time, with corresponding reductions in the ultimate length and value of the contract.”

The previous Conservative government had earmarked £700 million for similar services at Manston and Dover to manage the arrival of immigrants by small boat up until at least 2030, with similar options for the contract to be extended a further four years.

English Channel Crossings

The contract publication comes after the government had launched its multi-agency Border Security Command, which aims to tackle illegal immigration by addressing criminal people smuggling networks and working with regional partners.

Last month, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper pledged £75 million to Border Security Command to be spent on monitoring technology, new covert capabilities, improving intelligence sharing across the UK’s police forces, and recruiting additional personnel at the National Crime Agency.

The Home Office said the funds were being redirected from the budget originally allocated under the previous Conservative government for the Rwanda scheme, measures which Labour scrapped when they formed a new government in July.

High numbers of illegal immigrants continue to land on Britain’s shores, with Saturday seeing 471 people cross the English Channel in nine small boats—just one week after 973 made the same journey in what was the highest number of arrivals in a single day this year.

While the total number of illegal boat landings so far this year is still lower than this point in 2022, figures remain higher than this time last year.

In a statement provided to media outlets, a Home Office spokesperson said the department was “committed to smashing the criminal smuggling gangs responsible for overcrowding people onto boats for financial gain.”

The spokesperson continued: “We are procuring to reduce the number of providers that run the Manston site to cut costs and save the taxpayer money.

“However, in time, as we take down the people smuggling gangs through the work of the Border Security Command, we expect see fewer people exploited into making these dangerous journeys.”