Pontins, student halls and cruise ships may be used to…

Pontins, student halls and cruise ships may be used to house asylum seekers as 40,000 cross the channel

Offseason holiday parks such as Pontins, as well as budget cruise ships and student halls could be used to house refugees - as part of a radical 10-part plan to end 'Hotel Britain'.

The UK Home Office faces a constantly growing backlog of some 90,000 visa applications to get through - as officials begin kickstarting a process to empty an overcrowded holding facility at RAF Manston.

Just last week, squalid conditions were revealed inside the Kent migrant centre, showing detainees forced to sleep on hardwood floors and being held for a number of weeks as opposed to the scheduled 24 hour time frame.

The Mirror reports that proposed solutions to help assist the migrant crisis include popular holiday camps like Butlin's, Pontin's, Park Holidays and Warner Holidays - which could in-turn be used to home migrants on the south coast. Disused student halls, as well as cruise ships have also been touted as part of a new 10-point plan to address the crisis the Telegraph reports.

A senior source at the Home Office also told the Express “nothing was off the table”.

"The scale of the problem is huge - as things stand, the number of migrants and asylum seekers has outstripped our capacity, and the reality is that we have just weeks to solve this current backlog crisis,“ they said.

“We need to examine other options, and the use of off-season holiday camps is an attractive idea. They are enclosed, meaning that we can provide medical and educational services whilst ensuring asylum seekers remain contained, and they would buy us breathing space, while potentially offering another stream of revenue to facilities which are not used over the winter months.”

However the 'attractive idea' may have already hit a snag - with multiple holiday camp firms pointing out they no longer have 'off seasons'. Writing for The Telegraph, immigration minister Robert Jenrick added that the current use of 'unsuitable' hotels as a means of accommodation could even be fuelling 'asylum shopping' economic migrants, who see Britain as a 'destination of choice'.

“‘Hotel Britain’ must end, and be replaced with simple, functional accommodation that does not create an additional pull factor,” he wrote.

It's understood the minister demanded to meet with bosses of private accommodation contractors this week and read them the riot act over the commissioning of 'unacceptable' hotels as accommodation, some of which include stately homes that charge up to £200 per night. A cross-government party is to be established to oversee the effective running of accommodation and to speed up the transfer of migrants out of it.

It is believed the Home Office currently funds around 200 hotels, which are being block booked without any prior notice required in tourist towns. These are thought to house as many as 37,000 migrants, which has led to eight councils considering or having taken legal action against such use.

In October the Home Office was temporarily banned from housing asylum seekers in a village hotel after a legal bid from Yorkshire Council. The hotel crackdown is one of ten measures aimed at tackling the migrant crisis, which has seen a record 40,000 cross the channel this year - 12,000 of whom travelled from Albania.

Ministers are now planning a fast track deportation scheme for Albanians, as Britain now has a removals agreement with the nation and it can be treated as a "safe" country.

Mr Jenrick said: "Those coming from safe countries such as Albania – whose citizens account for 30 per cent of illegal crossings this year – must see that crossing the Channel in small boats is not a path to a life here. The record number of arrivals, and the prospect of further increases, require us to overhaul the system to ensure our laws are appropriate."

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