HOUSING illegal migrants on barges is £20 a night per person cheaper than hotels, the Home Office insisted yesterday.
A value-for-money assessment claimed a night in the Bibby Stockholm cost £120 while a hotel was £140.
PAHousing illegal migrants on barges is £20 a night per person cheaper than hotels, insists the Home Office[/caption]
Home Office Permanent Secretary Matthew Rycroft said the overall savings when including set-up costs would be £800,000 for the duration of the vessel’s 18-month contract.
That is despite the start-up costs for the Bibby Stockholm totalling £22million.
When pressed the Home Office would not go into details about its calculations.
Ministers bought the Bibby Stockholm, moored off Portland, Dorset, to cut the £8million-a-day hotel cost to taxpayers.
Meanwhile, Home Secretary James Cleverly said deportations under the UK’s agreement with Rwanda could be “quite low” depending on other factors.
But he refused to predict how many were likely to go.
It came as migrants were pulled from the sea trying to make the dangerous Channel crossing yesterday.
Lifeboats from Dover, Dungeness and Hastings were scrambled to rescue those on small boats.
The coastguard confirmed there had been “a number of incidents” off the Kent coast.
More than 1,000 migrants have arrived in the UK since the start of the year after crossing the Channel, Home Office figures show.
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