RISHI SUNAK’S announcement of two further barges to house around 1,000 asylum-seekers off Britain’s coast is to distract from the urgent need to process claims fairly and quickly, campaigners warned today.

The Prime Minister said that the number of people making the dangerous journey across the Channel were down by around a fifth since last year, playing down suggestions that it was a result of poor weather conditions rather than policy decisions.

In a speech in Dover, Kent, Mr Sunak defended measures to house asylum-seekers on barges — with the first one set to be moored in Portland, Dorset, within a fortnight, and the announcement of two more to house another 1,000 people.

He declined to say where the two new barges would be moored, although there has been widespread speculation one could be based on Merseyside.

The PM said that the returns deal with Albania had led to 1,800 people being sent back and was having a deterrent effect.

He also claimed the government is “on track” to clear the backlog for initial asylum decisions by the end of the year.

A total of 172,758 people were waiting for an initial decision on asylum applications at the end of March, up 57 per cent from a year earlier and the highest figure since comparable records began in 2010, according to Home Office figures.

Amnesty International UK chief executive Sacha Deshmukh called for the plan to use accommodation barges to be scrapped.

He said: “Like the use of former military barracks and reported plans to use decommissioned cruise ships, corralling large numbers of people onto giant barges is a terrible idea and should be abandoned.

“Confining people who’ve escaped terror, torture and other cruelty in locations which will inevitably lead to their social isolation is immoral and potentially unlawful.

“Like the deeply cruel Rwanda scheme, the giant barges project is being used to distract from the urgent need to fairly and efficiently decide people’s asylum claims, something this government is still failing to do.”

British Red Cross executive director Christina Marriott said the government’s focus should be on tackling asylum claims as people are “living in limbo,” sometimes for years, unable to work and separated from families.

She said: “People fleeing war and persecution should be able to access the system whenever they need it, regardless of how they arrived in the UK.”

Ms Marriott called for more accessible safe routes for people to reach Britain.

The Refugee Council said that Mr Sunak’s claim that the asylum system is “overwhelmed by people from safe countries” is “simply untrue.”

It tweeted: “We are raising this repeated misinformation with the Home Office and writing to broadcasters.

“The asylum debate is complex and ministers have a duty to be accurate in their comments, whatever their view.”

The Home Office estimates that the cost of detaining and deporting those arriving in small boats could hit £6 billion in two years, according to the BBC, which spoke to a senior government source.

Ministers have so far not revealed any costs linked to the plans, which come under the Illegal Migration Bill.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan called on government today to urgently rethink the “cruel and unworkable” Bill, writing to Home Secretary Suella Braverman to warn that tens of thousands of people will be left stranded in the capital without any support or work.

The Labour mayor said that the Bill also risks incentivising and emboldening traffickers as their vulnerable victims will no longer be able secure protection and support to safely rebuild their lives.

He said: “We have a responsibility to help those fleeing oppression and violence, and — far from washing their hands of these individuals — the government should be urgently rethinking its plans as we work to build a better London for everyone.”