Nothing is off the table regarding limiting and reducing the use of hotels to house asylum seekers, which reportedly costs over £6 million daily, said Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab on Wednesday.

“The hotels are the incentive” for small boat crossings, and the UK needs to “get off” the £6 million a day tax bill for these hotels,” Raab told Sky News.

“Barges would be one possible option, along with ex-military barracks,” he added.

Under the illegal migration bill, migrants ‘illegally’ arriving on UK soil can be detained without bail or judicial review within the first 28 days of detention until removal.

The bill includes provisions preventing asylum seekers from claiming to be victims of modern slavery to avoid or delay their removal.

On Wednesday, the Council of Europe’s anti-trafficking body, GRETA, expressed “deep concern” over the UK’s Illegal Migration Bill and its “lack of compliance with core elements of the Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings.”

The UK “will tackle what is effectively an abuse of the system,” said Raab.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is currently under pressure to develop alternatives as Conservative MPs, including members of his cabinet and Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs James Cleverly, object to plans to move some people from hotels into ex-military bases, The Guardian reported.

(Sofia Stuart Leeson | EURACTIV.com)