Home Office pays firm £2m to pick up people trying to cross Channel

theguardian.com:

The Home Office is paying a private company £2m over six months to charter boats and crew to pick up people trying to cross the Channel, amid tension with the Royal Navy over its role in Priti Patel’s plans to deter asylum seekers.

Contract disclosures published on a government portal show that Aeolian Offshore, which is based on the Isle of Wight and usually serves the offshore wind industry, has provided three boats.

Details of the outsourcing plan were published as the number of people crossing the channel in small boats hit a new record, despite the government’s controversial plan to deter them by striking a deal with Rwanda to deport asylum seekers to the central African state.

According to the contract with Aeolian, its three vessels will work in 12-hour shifts, departing from Ramsgate, Kent, and sailing to “reported sightings of migrant vessels, to collect the migrants found”.

The boats, which usually have space for 12 passengers and three crew, must be able to accommodate a “minimum of 100 migrants” on deck, it states, as well as towing any craft that the people they pick up may have used to cross the Channel.

The contract stipulates: “Border Force staff will conduct all migrant movements and work the deck areas while at sea. The migrants will then be placed in Dover before the vessel returns to Ramsgate overnight.”

However, the contract also states that Aeolian will provide some crew, who “may be required to assist” with managing people who are picked up.

A spokesperson for Seacat Services, Aeolian’s parent company, said crew were provided with “specialist training in advance, and ongoing support throughout their time on the vessels to handle the unique challenges of the work”.

They added that there was ample room on