Home Office buys marquees to house migrants ahead of expected surge in Channel crossings
The Home Office has bought marquees to accommodate 2,000 migrants at disused military sites by the end of August, Sky News understands.
The tents will start to be erected over the coming weeks as part of emergency plans to deal with an expected surge of Channel crossings.
According to The Times, which first reported on the story, Border Force is predicting that the next three months will be the busiest time for the small boat journeys in a repeat of last year.
A Home Office source told the newspaper: “It’s obvious we can’t again be in a position where we’re having to spot-book expensive hotels on the fly for migrants.
“There’s nothing wrong with this kind of temporary accommodation when needed. Other countries do use it as well.”
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This is not the first time the government has used marquees to house asylum seekers – several were erected at the Manston processing centre last autumn to deal with a surge of arrivals.
The tents are part of a wider strategy to seeking out new accommodation for asylum seekers to reduce the hotel bill to house them, which the government claims costs taxpayers £6m a day.
On Tuesday, the first asylum seekers are set to move on to the controversial Bibby Stockholm barge, a Whitehall source told Sky News.
An initial 50 single men are set to be moved on board the vessel that is docked in Portland Port in Dorset, with that number expected to rise to 500 in the coming months.
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A record backlog and thousands of people making unauthorised crossings of the Channel have strained the system as Prime Minister Rishi Sunak battles to “stop the boats”.
But refugee charities said the use of such sites is damaging to the needs of vulnerable people, and also raised concerns for migrants’ safety.
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What’s it like onboard the Bibby Stockholm
Conservative MPs representing areas where the facilities are being established have also been worried about how local services in their constituencies will be impacted, such as police and healthcare.
A month behind schedule after undergoing repairs, the Bibby Stockholm was met by protesters as it arrived in Portland Port on Tuesday last week.
Some residents have raised concerns for their safety on the island with a population of around 13,000 and argued that it does not have the infrastructure to provide for the newcomers and those already there.
Read more:
Arrival of first asylum seekers on Bibby Stockholm barge delayed
Cruise ships set to house asylum seekers in Liverpool and Edinburgh sent back to owners
A Home Office spokeswoman said: “The Bibby Stockholm has completed a statutory inspection and refurbishment and is now berthing in Portland.
“The welfare of those in our care is of the utmost priority and the barge is now undergoing final preparations to ensure it complies with all appropriate regulations before the arrival of the first asylum seekers in the coming weeks.”
SEC Commissioner Caroline Crenshaw, expected to leave the agency in less than a month, used one of her final public speaking engagements to address the regulator’s response to digital assets.
Speaking at a Brookings Institution event on Thursday, Crenshaw said standards at the SEC had “eroded” in the last year, with “markets [starting] to look like casinos,” and “chaos” as the agency dismissed many years-long enforcement cases, reduced civil penalties and filed fewer actions overall.
The commissioner, expected to depart in January after her term officially ended in June 2024, also criticized many crypto users and the agency’s response to the markets.
“People invest in crypto because they see some others getting rich overnight,” said Crenshaw. “Less visible are the more common stories of people losing their shirts. One thing that consistently puzzles me about crypto is what are cryptocurrency prices based on? Many, but not all, crypto purchasers are not trading based on economic fundamentals.”
She added:
“I think it’s safe to say [crypto purchasers are] speculating, reacting to hysteria from promoters, feeding a desire to gamble, wash trading to push up prices, or, as one Nobel laureate has posited, ‘betting on the popularity of the politicians who support or stand to benefit from the success of crypto.’”
In contrast to Crenshaw’s remarks, SEC Chair Paul Atkins, Commissioner Hester Peirce and Commissioner Mark Uyeda have all publicly expressed their support for the agency’s approach to digital assets and the Trump administration’s direction of policy.
Peirce and Atkins spoke at a Blockchain Association Policy Summit this week to discuss crypto regulation and a path forward on market structure under consideration in the Senate.
Related: Crypto industry fears ‘vehemently anti crypto’ Caroline Crenshaw SEC vote
During the Thursday event’s question-and-answer session, Crenshaw expanded on her views of crypto, stating that it was a “tiny piece of the market,” and suggested that the SEC focus on other regulatory concerns. In addition, she expressed concern that the agency was heading toward giving crypto companies an exception from policies that applied to traditional finance.
“I do worry that as the crypto rules are perhaps implemented, or perhaps we just put out more guidance […] where we say they are not securities, where we loosen the basic fundamentals of the securities laws so that they can operate in our system, but without any of the guardrails that we have in place. I do worry that that can lead to more significant market contagion,” said Crenshaw.
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The departure of Crenshaw would leave the SEC with three Republican commissioners, two of whom were nominated by US President Donald Trump. As of Thursday, Trump had not made any announcements signaling that he ever planned to nominate another Democrat to the SEC, and Crenshaw said the agency’s staff had been reduced by about 20% in the last year.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission also faces a dearth of leadership, with many commissioners leaving the agency in 2025. As of December, acting Chair Caroline Pham was the sole remaining CFTC commissioner and a Republican. However, the US Senate is soon expected to vote on Trump’s nominee, Michael Selig, to chair the agency after Pham.
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The Belarusian Ministry of Information has blocked access to crypto exchanges Bybit, OKX, Bitget, Gate, Bingx and Weex, it said on Thursday.
According to a government announcement, the ministry has restricted access to the global domains of several crypto exchanges, citing “inappropriate advertising” under Article 511 of the Law on Mass Media.
Cointelegraph reached out to the blocked exchanges but had not received responses at the time of publication.
Belarus is a close ally of Russia on the world stage. The domain restriction comes on the same day that Vladimir Chistyukhin, first deputy chairman at the Central Bank of Russia, told state-backed outlet RIA Novosti that it “agreed to allow qualified investors” into the crypto market. The remarks build on recent reports that the institution was considering easing restrictions on cryptocurrencies in response to the sweeping sanctions imposed on the country.
Russia disclosed plans in late April to allow crypto access only to “super-qualified investors,” defined by wealth and income thresholds of over 100 million rubles ($1.2 million) or an annual income of at least 50 million rubles ($630,000), effectively limiting participation to high-net-worth individuals.
Related: EU sanctions Russian A7A5 stablecoin and crypto exchanges
Russia’s central bank sees crypto’s utility
Chistyukhin said a “crucial point that cannot be ignored” is that “cryptocurrencies are currently being used not only as an investment but also as a means of cross-border payments.” His comments echoed recent statements over allowing broader crypto access in Russia as a response to the international sanctions:
“We certainly want to protect Russian retail investors as much as possible from transactions with such a risky asset. On the other hand, we understand that, under the current circumstances, some international payments can only be made using cryptocurrency.“
Chistyukhin said there are currently about one million qualified investors able to access crypto assets in Russia, noting that investors would also be assessed on their knowledge of cryptocurrencies. He conceded that allowing non-qualified investors to access crypto is on the table, but said it would require extreme caution.
“Specifically, such investors could be granted access only to the most liquid instruments,” he said.
Chistyukhin highlighted the need for “establishing strict restrictions and prohibitions” and said “it’s expected that cryptocurrency transactions will be conducted primarily through existing market participants, under existing licenses,” adding that “anything outside this framework will be considered illegal.“
Magazine: When privacy and AML laws conflict: Crypto projects’ impossible choice
Trust Wallet, the self-custodial crypto wallet owned by Binance co-founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, has partnered with European fintech unicorn and digital banking giant Revolut to introduce a new way to purchase crypto assets on its platform.
Trust Wallet users can now buy Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH) and Solana (SOL) with Revolut through a direct integration, the company announced on Thursday.
With a minimum purchase starting at 10 euros ($12) and capped at 23,000 euros ($26,950) daily and per transaction, Trust Wallet’s new buy option is expected to provide a faster and easier way to access crypto from Europe.
In October, Revolut scored regulatory approval from the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission to offer crypto services across 30 European Economic Area markets in compliance with the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) framework.
Stablecoins like USDC not supported, for now
The integration will initially support only three crypto assets, but the companies said they expect to add stablecoins such as Circle’s USDC (USDC) at a later stage.
The feature enables zero-fee crypto purchases using multiple fiat currencies supported by Revolut, including the euro, the British pound, as well as the Czech koruna, Danish Krone, Polish Złoty and others.
While Revolut–Trust Wallet crypto purchases are offered with zero fees, adding money to a Revolut account is not free of charge in many cases, including via bank transfers, card top-ups and cash deposits. Cash deposits are subject to a 1.5% fee and are limited to $3,000 per calendar month, according to Revolut’s FAQs.
Related: Crypto self-custody is a fundamental right, says SEC’s Hester Peirce
The integration came shortly after Revolut secured a $75 billion company valuation after completing a private share sale in late November. “This makes us Europe’s most valuable private company and in the top 10 of the world’s most valuable private companies,” Revolut said in a post on X.
CZ-backed Trust Wallet has been actively tapping into trending market sectors, including prediction markets and real-world asset tokenization, expanding access to these offerings for self-custody users.
Cointelegraph contacted Revolut and Trust Wallet for comment on the integration, but had not received a response by publication.
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