The British government is set to confirm that trafficked migrants will be transferred from expensive hotels to two former Royal Air Force (RAF) air bases.
Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick was expected to announce the move later on Wednesday amid the scandal over the reported £6.8 million-per-day (about $8.3mln) cost of keeping those arriving illegally by small boats from France in hotels.
Up to 1,500 migrants could be housed at RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire — more than the population of the nearby village — with RAF Wethersfield in Essex expected to be used as well.
Scampton was home to the famous 617 Bomber Squadron — the Dambusters — during the Second World War, and later the RAF's nuclear-armed Avro Vulcan jet bombers and the Red Arrows aerobatic display team.
The airfield closed in 2022 after 106 years in operation, but in March this year a deal was agreed for the local West Lindsey District Council to buy the site to convert it into a business park with 'heritage attractions' based on its rich history.
Residents oppose the scheme to house illegal immigrants there, and an online petition set up by opposition Labour Party parliamentary candidate Hamish Falconer had topped 40,000 signatures by last week.
"The government remains committed to engaging with local authorities and key stakeholders as part of this process," a Downing Street spokesperson insisted on Wednesday.
The government is also considering accommodating migrants on cruise ships, ferries and even barges.
Justice Secretary Dominic Raab told an interviewer on Wednesday morning that Downing Street was looking at "a whole range of options" and that nothing was "off the table".
"We’ll look at barges it’s been done elsewhere in Europe, it’s been done in Scotland. We’ll look at barracks," Raab said. "We must end this perverse incentive through the hotels and more generally with the hospitality that in a broader sense this country gives, encouraging the wrong people, which is the criminal gangs and illegal migrants, to make these very dangerous journeys."
But one newspaper reported that the government had already bought an "accommodation barge" with space for hundreds of people.
"We have always been upfront about the unprecedented pressure being placed on our asylum system, brought about by a significant increase in dangerous and illegal journeys into the country," said the government spokesperson.
Home Secretary Suella Braverman recently finalised a deal with the east African state of Rwanda to relocate asylum-seekers there, while the government is rushing its Illegal Migration Bill through Parliament to allow illegal immigrants to be deported with no right of appeal.