That's more than in the whole of last year.

Now, ministers are understood to be considering plans to house asylum seekers on disused ferries moored off the British coast.

While their claims are assessed, Our home editor, Mark Easton, has more a combination of the pandemic and the arrival of thousands of migrants in dinghies this summer has put so much pressure on the Home Office asylum system that civil servants and ministers have been considering housing some offshore.

A recent government brainstorming session included discussion on whether it was feasible to move asylum seekers to Ascension and ST Halina Islands thousands of miles away in the middle of the Atlantic.

This was in the realms of cloud cuckoo land.

Can you just confirm whether or not civil service time was actually spent investigating something where you could even land an aircraft?

Noticed decisions have been taken.

No final proposals have been put to ministers or to anyone else.

This is in the realm of the brainstorming stage of a future policy.

Another idea discussed by ministers was to hire disused ferries as the home office did in 1987 when reception centers were overwhelmed by the arrival of Tamil refugees.

Already, this barracks in Folkestone is being used to house asylum seekers, as are 91 hotels, including this one in Glasgow, which has seen protests over conditions.

56 asylum seekers tested positive for coronavirus at this burning um hostile, which was closed earlier this month.

More than 9.5 1000 asylum seekers are currently in hotels in 50 local authorities because virus restrictions have reduced official accommodation.

122 of those migrants have tested positive for co vid 19 on around 750 a.

Currently in isolation.

The idea of processing asylum applicants offshore is a reality in Australia, where the island of Nauru is used to keep migrants outside national territory while their claims are investigated.

We will replace the asylum system in its entirety with offshore processing of all claims to deter all but genuine claims for protection from persecution.

Over the last two decades, both the Conservatives and Labor have looked at ways to move asylum seekers offshore, but it's always proved legally and practically challenging.

It's another one of the government's crazy schemes.

I don't think it will come to anything.

We use prison ships in the Victorian era, and there's a reason that we don't do that anymore.

It's because it's no unacceptable way to keep fellow human beings.

With weather conditions worsening, it's likely the number of asylum seekers crossing the channel will be much reduced.

A chance for the home office to draw breath on find realistic solutions to a familiar challenge.

Mark East on BBC News.