Royal Navy warship sold to Bahrain as Britain battles unprecedented migrant crisis

The former HMS Clyde was formally handed over to the Bahrani Navy during a closed door ceremony attended by Bahrani military officials and senior diplomats at Portsmouth Naval Base last week.

The news comes as Britain battles a record surge in migrants crossing the Channel, with hundreds reaching south coast shores in the past few days alone.

The offshore patrol ship, which is still alongside at the city’s naval base, has since been renamed RBNS Al Zubara and is expected to sail to her new home in the Middle East in the next few weeks.

Bahraini diplomats in the UK said Clyde’s addition to their naval force was helping to ‘revive’ the nation’s power at sea in the Gulf.

In a statement about handover, the Bahraini embassy in the UK said: ‘The Royal Bahrain Naval Force (RBNF) with its modern combat warships, sophisticated administrative vessels and advanced transportation and training ships is reviving Bahrain’s ancient rich maritime history, as the country used to have one of the largest naval fleets in the region.’

Clyde was decommissioned in Portsmouth in December – just hours after she returned from a mammoth 12-year stint guarding the Falkland Islands.

The warship had been leased to the Senior Service from defence giant BAE Systems. However, the lease expired at the end of March.

There had been hopes an agreement could be struck to keep Clyde on with the navy to bolster its fishery protection squadron or to sell her to UK Border Force.

But these hopes were dashed when armed forces minister James Heappey confirmed the Ministry of Defence had ‘no plans for a further role’ for the ship.

The move worried Admiral Lord West, a former head of the navy, who told The News: ‘I think it is foolhardy to get rid of Clyde at the moment.’

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Clyde’s sale comes as a record number of asylum seekers reached Britain’s shores illegally from France over the past few weeks.

More than 4,000 migrants have arrived in the UK so far this year, with an ‘unprecedented number’ sailing the Channel in the past two weeks.

The peak came on August 6 when 235 migrants were picked up by the border force – a record total for a single day.

Calls have gone out for the navy to step in and carry out more patrols of the Channel, a job that would have been suited for Clyde.

Clyde’s new role is expected to see her tackling maritime security operations in the Bab al-Mandab Strait, one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes.

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