Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has vowed to stop housing illegal immigrants in hotels hours after plans to send migrants to a barge were delayed.
On Tuesday night, he told GB News: “I think what’s going on currently is completely wrong. We’ve got a situation which is unfair. British taxpayers are forking out £6 million a day to house illegal migrants in hotels and other accommodation.
“That’s clearly wrong, it’s clearly unfair and that’s why I want to put an end to it.”
Stand Up To Racism Dorset said the Home Office had been “intent” on moving migrants onto the Bibby Stockholm on Tuesday, but delayed the plans at the last minute.
The postponement was confirmed by Transport Minister Richard Holden who said the vessel was undergoing “final checks”—refusing to put a timescale on when the refugees would arrive at the Portland Port site.
Mr. Sunak told GB News that barges were a “short-term” solution to the small boats crisis and reiterated that stopping the English Channel crossings was one of his top priorities.
“Now, in the short term, we’re finding alternative sites like the barges that we’re bringing in which are new ways to deal with this problem which no one else has done but I’ve done, but fundamentally if we want to stop this, we’ve got to stop people coming here in the first place,” he said.
“And that’s why stopping the boats is one of my five priorities.
‘Dodgy Lawyers’
Asked on Wednesday if illegal immigrants will be housed on the Bibby Stockholm barge next week, the prime minister told LBC’s Nick Ferrari, “The Bibby Stockholm will be in operation as soon as it’s passed all the checks and regulations—as soon as possible—that’s the key thing.”He highlighted the Illegal Migration Act before adding: “We’re making a difference, I’m going to keep going on this … I’m going to throw everything at it.”
Mr. Sunak said there is “an array of people that want me to fail,” which he said includes Labour, criminal gangs and “dodgy lawyers,” who he said are a “subset, a minority, of lawyers.”
He went on: “There are lots of people who are lined up to try and stop me, but I’m going to keep going until we stop the boats.”
Tuesday’s asylum seeker delay is the latest to hit the Home Office in as many weeks.
A council spokesperson said Home Office representatives claimed the delay was owing to ongoing building checks and finding “suitably qualified individuals” to oversee and assure gas, water, and electricity connectivity to the site.
The average number of illegal immigrants crossing the Channel per boat last month was the highest on record, figures show.
Some 3,299 people made the journey in July in 63 boats—an average of around 52 migrants per vessel.
Analysis of government data revealed this is the highest average since records began in 2018.
The third-highest average (47) was reached in October last year when 147 boats carried 6,900 people in a month. Provisional Home Office figures show 14,732 migrants have arrived in the UK after crossing the Channel so far this year.
But no arrivals have been recorded in nearly a week amid poor weather conditions at sea.
The 2023 total to date is 10 percent lower than the 16,434 recorded from January to July last year.
