ILLEGAL migrants are to be housed on giant barges and ex-RAF bases instead of pricey hotels under plans to slash the £3.5billion asylum accommodation bill.
Immigration minister Robert Jenrick will today announce the days of putting small boats arrivals in expensive hotels are over.
The Home Office intends the barges to be a “deterrent, not a magnet”.
Migrants who come to Britain illegally on small boats will no longer be put up for free in plush hotels, under plans being announced today.
Small boat arrivals will be housed on giant static barges and at RAF sites.
Ministers are preparing to unveil a fleet of floating vessels with container cabins to accommodate hundreds of people.
Immigration minister Robert Jenrick will make the announcement after it emerged that the asylum hotel bill was an astonishing £3.5billion last year — equal to a third of Britain’s International Aid budget.
A staggering 51,000 asylum seekers are being put up in nearly 400 hotels across the country.
PM Rishi Sunak has vowed to end the use of hotels altogether to cut the huge sums as part of his clampdown on illegal migration.
But for now the new sites will be used only for new arrivals.
Those currently housed in hotels will not be moved out.
Some of the hotels have been block-booked for another 18 months as local authorities struggle to find places to house arrivals. The numbers surged to 45,000 last year.
The Home Office wants the new accommodation to be a “deterrent, not a magnet” for migrants thinking about attempting the deadly Channel crossing.
It points out that EU nations including France are already housing refugees in floating vessels.
Accommodation barges are widely used in offshore construction and the oil industry — providing basic bed and board for workers.
Sites will have 24/7 security and a range of amenities in a bid to try and stop people needing to leave.
Those on board will be allowed limited exercise on shore.
Large-scale self-contained sites like RAF Scampton and former RAF Wethersfield will also be used to detain illegal migrants — despite the fury of locals.
A package of extra cash and measures for local authorities is expected to be revealed in a bid to calm residents’ fears over the extra numbers coming to their area.
Mr Sunak and Home Secretary Suella Braverman will tell disgruntled MPs, including Sir Edward Leigh and James Cleverly, that detention sites will be established in their areas within days — telling them it’s in the “national interest”.
Foreign Secretary Mr Cleverly has insisted the former RAF Wethersfield site in his Essex constituency of Braintree is not appropriate for asylum accommodation and begged the immigration minister to think again.
Yesterday Mr Sunak insisted that children must not be exempt from detention under his new immigration crackdown because it will create a “pull factor” for more to try and come to the UK.
The PM told MPs during a Commons Liaison Committee grilling: “It’s important we don’t inadvertently create a policy that incentivises people to bring children who wouldn’t otherwise come here.
“Otherwise you create an incentive for a criminal gang to bring a child with them when they otherwise wouldn’t be, and I don’t think that is a good thing.
“We don’t want to create a pull factor to make it more likely that children are making this very perilous journey in conditions that are appalling.”
Meanwhile, the Home Office was accused of squandering taxpayers’ cash with the eye-watering hotel costs to tackle the asylum backlog.
Nearly 400 hotels gave taxpayers poor value for money, the official watchdog found.
The Independent Commission for Aid Impact said there was no incentive for the Home Office to control its spending as the cash comes from the Foreign Office budget.