THE Home Office has all-but given up trying to secure more migrant barges, The Sun has been told.
Insiders said gaining new vessels to house asylum seekers was now “not a priority” following failed attempts to find willing ports.
The Bibby Stockholm migrant barge is the only vessel secured by the governmentAlamy
Ministers previously hailed the Bibby Stockholm barge – docked in Portland, Dorset – as the first of several ships that would be used as a cheaper alternative to hotels.
Taxpayers are forking out £8million every day to put up asylum seekers in hotels, according to the latest costs.
But government sources suggested work to find more vessels had been quietly shelved after initial efforts to find ports happy to take them flopped.
One said: “It’s not a priority anymore. That’s not to say a port suddenly couldn’t turn around tomorrow and stick their hand up, but it’s not really front and centre.”
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The Bibby Stockholm suffered setbacks after a legionella outbreak forced the initial tranche of migrants to disembark within days last summer.
And the cost of procuring the barge – which has still not reached capacity – was revealed to be £22million although ministers still claimed it represents value for money.
A Home Office spokesperson said: “We continue to look at a range of alternative accommodation sites to house asylum seekers, including vessels which have been used safely and successfully by Scottish and Dutch Governments, and former military sites.”
Ministers are now winding down migrant hotels, having now closed 50 and another 50 earmarked to shut by the spring.
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This month they claimed a win in clearing the 92,000 backlog of legacy asylum cases – with the remaining overall backlog now standing at 98,000.
Shadow Immigration Minister Stephen Kinnock said: “Bibby Stockholm has been a disaster from the get go and is now a stark symbol of the Conservatives’ broken asylum system.
“It shouldn’t be necessary for the government to use hotels, barges or bases, yet there are still 56,000 people staying in hotels at a cost of £8million day – despite Rishi Sunak’s promises to end hotel use by the end of last year.”
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