Starmer plans for 10 more years of small boats with £521m ‘migrant processing’ contract! B
Home Office seeks commercial partners to run two large facilities to receive and process illegal migrants crossing the Channel
The Home Office has earmarked more than £500 million to manage Channel migrants arriving on small boats for up to a decade, according to official documents.
Officials are seeking commercial partners to run two large facilities from January 2026 until January 2032 that will receive and process illegal migrants crossing the Channel.
Bidding companies are being offered £521 million for up to six years but with a break clause if Sir Keir Starmer’s government succeeds in bringing down the number of migrants crossing the Channel.
However, the contract also has an option to extend its time for up to four more 12-month periods if small boat crossings are still continuing up to 2036, according to the documents.
It came as the Home Office said 471 people arrived in nine boats on Saturday, following 142 in two boats on Friday. They bring the total so far fr 2024 to 27,225, a five per cent increase on the 25,931 at the same time last year but 25 per cent less than the 36,491 in 2022.
Home Office sources said that it had reduced by a quarter the cost of the proposed £700 million six-year contract offered by the last Conservative government and also introduced a break clause, unlike the Tories.
Officials also claimed the contract would reduce the number of companies providing different services to the migrants which would save taxpayers money.
Labour has scrapped Rishi Sunak’s Rwanda deportation scheme and diverted the money to help set up a new Border Security Command which will oversee plans to combat the people smuggling gangs.
Extra officers are being recruited to the National Crime Agency, Border Force and MI5 to target the gangs with new arrest and seizure powers modelled on terrorist legislation to crackdown on the people smugglers.
The invitation for commercial partners centre on the UK Border Force’s rescue and arrivals base in Dover docks, known as Western Jet Foil. This is a secure facility where migrants rescued from the English Channel are initially brought ashore, registered and given emergency medical treatment.
The second part of the contract covers the much larger Manston centre, which was designed to accommodate up to 1,600 migrants while officials work out where to house them.
The tender on the Home Office website states: “The Manston reception centre and disembarkation point/s in Kent require providers of operator and healthcare services, including managing staffing of operations, security, healthcare facilities, and other wraparound services.
“The aim of the services is to provide a safe and secure environment, where Border Force can register and process individuals arriving in the UK on small boats from across the English Channel.”
A Home Office spokesman said: “We are committed to smashing the criminal smuggling gangs responsible for overcrowding people onto boats for financial gain.
“We are procuring to reduce the number of providers that run the Manston site to cut costs and save the taxpayer money.
“However, in time, as we take down the people smuggling gangs through the work of the Border Security Command, we expect to see fewer people exploited into making these dangerous journeys.”
The contract is currently largely run by Mitie at a cost of £120 million a year but this excludes additional services provided by other contractors. The Home Office proposes the new single contractor will be responsible for all services.
