The United Kingdom wants to offshore migrant housing to disincentivise Channel boat crossings, but its much-vaunted plan to subcontract housing to Rwanda appears to be stuck in the weeds, so the government is looking to the final rocky outcrops of the former empire for unappealing but safe housing instead.
The British Overseas Territory of Ascension Island, a small volcanic outcrop in the South Atlantic between Brazil and Angola could be used by the British government as housing for some of the thousands of migrants who enter the country ‘irregularly’ across the southern border every year. The Conservative Party government struck upon the idea of disincentivising migrant arrivals by making their state-funded accommodation after they entered the country on people-smuggler boats less appealing in 2022, but the programme never got off the ground after a series of legal challenges were mounted to protect migrants by campaign groups.
At present, courts have said housing migrants offshore is legal, but not in Africa’s Rwanda specifically because — despite what the government says — it is not a ‘safe’ country.
Now Suella Braverman’s Home Office is preparing “plan B”, keeping the principle of the plan but changing the destination, and — they hope — circumventing the legal issues of going abroad by using a British Overseas Territory. The Times reports Ascension Island 4,000 miles away from the United Kingdom is “one of” those being assessed as an asylum seeker processing centre, stating “Ministers believed its remote location would create a strong deterrent factor for migrants planning to cross the Channel in small boats.”
The volcanic terrain and aerials, used for both surveilance and transmissions on Ascension, a small (area of approximately 88 km²) isolated volcanic island in the equatorial waters of the South Atlantic Ocean, roughly midway between the horn of South America and Africa. (Photo by Barry Lewis / In Pictures via Getty Images Images)
THE FALKLANDS WAR : Ships of the Navy task force off Ascension Island in the South Atlantic on the way to the Falkland Islands. (Photo by PA Images via Getty Images)
A government spokesman cited by the paper said of the idea: “It’s pragmatic to consider all options and it makes sense to draw up proposals to stop the boats that could work alongside our Rwanda policy. We’re still confident that our Rwanda scheme is lawful, but having alternative proposals on the table would provide us with a back-up if we’re frustrated legally.
“Voters would expect us to leave no stone unturned and that is the right and sensible thing to do.”
While being stuck on an Atlantic island whose main features are a mountain, a military base, and space tracking stations may indeed be a disincentive to coming to the United Kingdom on a smuggler boat, this plan too comes with its own issues, not least how under-developed the infrastructure of the island is. Lack of power and water capacity for a sudden increase in population have been cited as issues, as has the fact the island has no hospital.
New infrastructure would be expensive to build from the costs of transport of raw materials alone, given the island is 1,000 miles by sea from Africa and 4,000 from the United Kingdom.
Although small, Ascension has held at times and important role in British military and civil life. It was a base for aircraft and occasional visiting submarines in the Second World War and was pivotal in Britain’s campaign to retake the Falklands Islands in 1982. Ascension’s location also makes it valuable for radio and space applications: the BBC World Service is broadcast to Africa and South America from Ascension, and both NASA and the European Space Agency have space-observation equipment there.
While plans to offshore migrants stumble, the government is also moving towards other ideas. One of those is housing migrants in less appealing accommodation in the United Kingdom than the hundreds of requisitioned hotels across the country that have been such a source of embarrassment for the government after Brexit leader Nigel Farage pushed their existence into the public eye.
One such plan, which may come to fruition this week after months of talk, is using a floating barge moored at a British port for migrant accommodation. The Bibby Stockholm, meant to house 500 has been moored in Portland, Dorset and may receive its first residents as soon as today.
The government has previously said housing migrants on the barge would be cheaper for the taxpayer, and would be less of an incentive to travel than a “luxury” hotel. Campaigners have opposed the barge plan too, citing health and safety concerns and migrant welfare. The barge has previously been used to accommodate rough sleepers in Germany, asylum seekers in Rotterdam, and oil and gas workers in Scotland.
PORTLAND, ENGLAND- AUGUST 06: An aerial view of the Bibby Stockholm immigration barge moored at Portland Port, on August 06, 2023 in Portland, England, The Home Office hopes to accommodate 500 migrants aboard the Bibby Stockholm barge in Portland, Dorset, while their asylum claims are processed. The first 50 asylum seekers were initially scheduled to board the barge in July. However, the move was delayed due to fire safety concerns. (Photo by Finnbarr Webster/Getty Images)