The Home Office is paying ￡2m a year for two private vessels, the MCS Blue Norther and MCS Taku (Image: PA)
The Home Office is paying ￡2 million a year on private boats sent to sea to pick up empty migrant dinghies, a leaked document has revealed.
The money from taxpayers allows the vessels to head out on the English Channel and collect abandoned small boats after migrants have been safely moved onto a Border Force or RNLI vessel.
MCS Taku and MCS Blue Norther are two of the boats based in Dover that the Home Office deploys.
A leaked document shows the Home Office paid ￡577,000 every three months to Maritime Craft Services, a business based in the west of Scotland, for using their two vessels to recover migrant boats, The Times revealed.
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A group of people thought to be migrants are brought in to Dover, Kent, onboard a Dover Lifeboat (Image: PA)
Some Kent-based charter businesses have questioned why the Government failed to contact local boat companies, who could have quoted cheaper prices.
Border Force boats previously towed the empty migrant dinghies before the contract was signed this year with Maritime Craft Services.
It is understood the Border Force had to pay Dover Marine ￡200 per dinghy it brought into the harbour as it needed an onshore crane to move the dinghies into the harbour.
The two crafts are normally used by the authorities to support dredging, marine construction projects and offshore windfarms and are not required to pay ￡200 because they have cranes on deck.
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A fisherman told The Times: "This is a total waste of money and adds unnecessary pollution and traffic to the Channel.
"Why can’t they tow the dinghies behind them like they used to? Or they could save the taxpayers hundreds of thousands of pounds by paying Kent-based vessels to pick up the empty dinghies instead, rather than chartering them from Scotland. I’d do it for ￡200,000 all-in."
A Home Office spokesman said: "All Home Office commercial contracts are designed to ensure the best value for taxpayers."
France also pays to deploy private vessels to the Channel, to help them find small boats and escort the dinghies towards British waters where the dinghy is then handed to the RNLI or Border Force. Once emptied, the empty dinghy will be taken back by Britain to the harbour using one of the contracted vessels.
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