Deportation staff hire aircraft hangar used in Netflix Squid Game to practise forcing asylum-seekers onto Rwanda planes
AN aircraft hangar used to film Netflix’s Squid Game reality show has been hired for deportation staff to practise forcing asylum-seekers on to planes to Rwanda.
The 146,000sq ft building on a former RAF base will be used by Home Office contractors for use-of-force training, costing £7.4million.
It will cost £6.4million to rent for 15 months — with another £670,000 being spent on hiring three aircraft fuselages.
And a further £315,000 will be splurged on meals from a catering company which usually serves meals to movie stars.
Cardington Airfield in Bedfordshire has been used by movie-makers since the 1960s.
Parts of the first Star Wars film, released in 1977, were recorded there — as was 2016’s Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.
The studios in Hangar 2, which boasts one of the highest ceilings in the UK at 158ft, were used for two Christopher Nolan Batman films and, last year, for Netflix competition, Squid Game: The Challenge.
Details of the spending on the use-of-force project have emerged in newly published Home Office contracts.
The training is understood to cover dealing with disruptive migrants, such as those who resort to violence or who play dead by lying on the floor while being moved.
Subcontractor Mitie has been hired to carry out the training — but its costs are not included in the £7.4million.
It has previously advertised for a £36,000-a-year use-of-force instructor.
The hangar hire contract, awarded to HCP LR Cardington LP, a partnership owned by an opaque trust based in Jersey, has cost £6,425,285 and runs until the end of the year.
Shake Rattle N Roll Ltd, the movie studios’ regular caterer, has been contracted to provide 130 meals a day for five days a week until June 30 but terms allow for it to be extended.
Hiring the aircraft fuselages — an Airbus A319 and two A320s — from Air Salvage International cost £671,090.
The £7.5million hangar project is on top of the £240million the UK government has already paid to Rwanda so far.
A further payment of £50million is likely to be made in the 2024-25 financial year.
The Home Office said last night: “Since 2015, the government has had training facilities so escorts have skills they need to deal with different scenarios.”
Lorries ‘bad as boats’
By Jack Elsom
STOPPING migrants sneaking into Britain on lorries is just as important as thwarting small boats, ministers were warned last night.
More than 3,000 people tried to enter the UK illegally last year via means other than Channel crossings.
Tory MP Paul Bristow spoke out after two migrants were found in the hold of a school coach returning from France to Totton, Hants.
He said: “The government needs the strongest controls to stop illegal migration in all forms.”
The most recent data, for the year to last September, shows 2,866 people were caught while in the UK, and 311 at ports.
The figure comprises those who hid in lorries, cars, shipping crates and other smuggling methods.
The Home Office said hauliers are now fined £10,000 per stowaway.