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Kosovo will be one of the countries asked to take failed asylum seekers from the UK as part of the government’s plan for “return hubs” abroad, according to reports.
The Western Balkan country is on a list of nine countries drawn up by the government of potential places to deport illegal migrants who have exhausted all avenues of appeal for asylum in the UK, according to The Times newspaper.
The report comes after the president of Kosovo revealed to Sky News that they would be “open to discussing it”, but there had been “no formal talks” so far.
The Tories say that return hubs will “not work as a deterrent”, and the “vast majority who illegally cross the [English] Channel have their asylum claims accepted, so would never be removed under the return hubs plan”.
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Sir Keir Starmer revealed last Thursday at a news conference with the Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama that the UK “is in talks with a number of countries about return hubs”.
They would be for processing failed asylum seekers prior to their eventual deportation, wherever that might be.
Downing Street said they would be for people “who have exhausted all legal routes to remain in the UK”, but who may be employing tactics to delay their removal – like “losing their paperwork”.
The hubs would effectively buy time to return or deport illegal migrants without the government having to house them in Britain in the meantime, such as in the asylum hotels, which the government has promised to close.
The prime minister described the hubs as a “really important innovation” that…
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