ILLEGAL migrants refusing to board the Bibby Stockholm barge have been given an ultimatum – get on today or lose your housing.
Tories have erupted after campaigners stopped around 20 asylum seekers moving onto the vessel yesterday with a last-minute legal bid.
Home Office sources have now warned they will pull the plug on their taxpayer-funded accommodation unless the migrants and their lawyer reps back down.
Justice Secretary Alex Chalk this morning suggested this radical move would be legal.
He said: "That is something that the courts would have to consider but I think it's unlikely, bluntly, that it would be illegal to do so but all cases are considered on their facts."
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Just 15 migrants spent the night onboard the ship moored in Portland, Dorset, following the legal challenge.
The left-wing Care4Calais charity have branded the 500-bed vessel a "floating prison" totally unsuitable for their clients who have suffered torture and slavery.
One migrant even managed to avoid a night on the barge because of his fear of water.
Conservative MP Lee Anderson blasted to the Sun: "I've been to Calais and seen the camps, compared to that this is five-star luxury.
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"And if they don't like it, they can go back to France."
Mr Chalk backed Mr Anderson's view today, saying he "expresses the righteous indignation of the British people."
Asylum seekers are gradually being checked into the ship moored in Portland, Dorset, with 500 men eventually expected to live there.
It is part of the plan to reduce the crippling £6million-a-day cost of housing around 50,000 illegal arrivals in hotels.
The three-storey barge – as big as a football pitch – has 222 12x12ft ensuite bedrooms to accommodate men aged 18-65, who can enjoy a gym, a cinema room and canteen.
Migrants on the barge will get welcome packs with bathroom essentials, a map and stationary, and can make use of buses and taxis to and from Weymouth.
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