UK to house hundreds more migrants on barges, Sunak says

By SYLVIA HUI
Associated Press

LONDON (AP) — Prime Minister Rishi Sunak says the U.K. government will house hundreds more asylum-seekers on barges. Two more barges will house about 1,000 migrants alongside one that’s set to be docked in Portland in southern England within the next two weeks. The move is meant to help save millions in taxpayers’ money currently spent to house asylum-seekers in hotels across the country. Sunak on Monday also unveiled latest migration figures that he said showed that his plans to crack down on small boat crossings on the English Channel are working. He said the number of people making the dangerous sea crossing on small vessels from northern France to the southern English coast so far this year has decreased by a fifth compared to the same time last year.