Ministers will hire more barges to house asylum seekers and host up to 5,000 migrants in office and student accommodation blocks, The Telegraph can reveal.

The Government will roll out more barges despite a breakout of Legionnaires’ disease that forced migrants to leave the Bibby Stockholm.

The development comes as six migrants died and 50 were rescued from the Channel on Saturday, with a government spokesman vowing to “break the people smugglers’ business model and stop the boats”. It was the worst loss of life in the Channel since November 2021.

Six Afghans, thought to be in their 30s, died and out of the around 57 who were rescued some were Afghan children and others were Sudanese. 

Philippe Sabatier, deputy public prosecutor for the French coastal city of Boulogne, confirmed the nationalities of the migrants.