The UK could send asylum seekers to safe third countries according to migration minister Angela Eagle, despite scrapping the previous government’s Rwanda scheme which cost taxpayers £750 million. She revealed the Government is considering copying a European Union plan to set up centres known as return hubs for failed asylum seekers outside the EU. In addition, Italy is sending asylum seekers to Albania to have their claims processed.
Last year Labour scrapped the previous government’s plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda even though £750 million had been spent on the policy and a site in Kigali called Hope Hostel had been refurbished ready to receive arrivals. Asked if the government is considering offshoring agreements, Ms Eagle said the Home Office is “very open-minded”. She told Times Radio: “We’re not ruling anything out if it works. so we’re looking at a range of things. We’re also obviously looking to see what the European Commission is doing in Europe.
“We’re looking to see whether return hubs might be a good idea but at the moment we’re not in a position to make any kind of announcements on that but we are very open-minded to see what works. The issue that is in our own control is to make our asylum system firm but much faster and fairer than the chaos we’ve inherited.”
The UK is considering setting up centres in the western Balkans, which includes Albania, Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggested other countries could take inspiration from her country when she spoke in a video message at a global immigration summit in London hosted by Sir Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister. She said Italy’s scheme to process asylum claims in Albania “was criticised at first, but that then has gained increasing consensus, so much so that today, European Union is proposing to set up return hubs in third countries.”
She said: “This means that we were right and that the courage to lead the way has been rewarded.”
The European Commission has also drawn up plans to set up return hubs for rejected asylum-seekers in third countries, which could either be in Europe or elsewhere.
Hope Hostel in the Rwanda capital is a four-story facility originally built to house college students who had been orphaned after their parents were killed during the Rwandan genocide of 1994. It was refurbished for use housing asylum seekers from the Uk, complete with a large banner at the entrance that read: “Come as a Guest, Leave as a Friend”.
The hostel’s manager told journalists before the scheme was scrapped last year that it was “100 percent” ready to receive asylum seekers from the UK. Labour critics argued that the hostel only had capacity for 200 people but Conservatives say the Rwanda deal, known officially as the Migration and Economic Development Partnership, meant more sites would be found if the hostel became full. Only four volunteers were ever removed to Rwanda before Labour scrapped the scheme saying it was unworkable.
