Holiday camp scheme for migrants in doubt

HOME Office plans to use off-season holiday camps and caravan parks to process asylum seekers may hit the buffers - as most now operate all year round.

- Marco Giannangeli

The idea was suggested during a recent meeting of a new team of civil servants which was specially convened to identify "large and secure" solutions.

It followed remarks by Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick that he wants to focus on "larger sites to provide decent but basic accommodation", as the Home Office tries to work its way through a backlog of 90,000 applications.

Britain has spent a record £2billion this year on asylum seekers - an increase of £756million from last year.

But even as officials begin the process to empty the overcrowded Manston holding facility in Kent, the backlog in applications is growing.

In the frame are household names like Pontins, Park Holidays, Warner and Butlin's, sources say, with a particular focus on South-Coast locations and Essex.