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The government is considering sending failed asylum seekers, including those arriving on small boats, to overseas ‘migrant hubs’, Sky News understands.
A Home Office source has told political correspondent Amanda Akass that the government is in the “very early stages” of discussions around the idea, and is keen to learn about what Italy has been doing in Albania.
The right-wing Italian government has built two facilities in the Balkan country aiming to hold migrants there while processing their asylum requests.
Government sources told The Times newspaper that UK ministers are planning to approach countries in the western Balkans including Albania, Serbia, Bosnia and North Macedonia.
Analysis: ‘Migrant hub’ plan will send alarm bells clanging
It comes as a number of migrants were pictured arriving in Dover, Kent, on Saturday.
On Friday, 246 people made the perilous journey across the Channel from France in five boats – bringing the provisional total for the year so far to 5,271.
On Thursday, 341 people crossed in six boats.
This is the earliest point in the year that crossings have reached the 5,000 mark since data on Channel crossings was first reported in 2018.
Labour’s strategy is expected to differ substantially from the previous Tory government’s Rwanda plan, which aimed to deport all migrants who arrived in the UK illegally, regardless of whether or not their asylum claims would be successful.
The Supreme Court ruled in 2023 that Rwanda was considered an “unsafe” country.
Amanda Akass said the Home Office source “won’t say which countries are being considered because they don’t want to pre-empt any discussions which haven’t even officially begun yet”.
“But I am told that the government is closely looking at the example of Italy, which has a treaty with Albania and has built two detention centres in Albania to house asylum seekers while their claims are being…
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