By Camille Bouissou with Helen Rowe in London, AFP
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Photo: STEPHANIE LECOCQ / AFP
The UK is in talks with different countries about setting up "return hubs" for failed asylum seekers, Prime Minister Keir Starmer has said during a visit to Albania focused on immigration.
The UK leader is under pressure to reduce immigration and cut the number of irregular migrants arriving on UK shores, many in small boats, amid the rising popularity of the hard-right, anti-immigrant Reform Party.
"We are in talks with a number of countries about return hubs," Starmer told a joint news conference with his Albanian counterpart Edi Rama.
But Rama made it clear that Albania, which has already reached a similar agreement with Italy, would not be involved.
Starmer insisted his Labour government had been left a "mess" by the previous Conservative leadership, which he said had failed to process asylum claims.
The prime minister's official spokesman said: "This will basically apply to people who have exhausted all legal routes to remain in the UK but are attempting to stall, using various tactics -- whether it's losing their paperwork or using other tactics to frustrate their removal."
'Inhumane, unworkable'
Last July, Starmer's Labour government abandoned the Conservatives' scheme to deport undocumented migrants to Rwanda.
Rama said hosting a UK return hub in Albania was not on the table. An earlier deal made with Italy had been a "one-off", he said.
The scheme by Italy for Italian-run facilities to process migrants in Albania is currently bogged down in the courts.
"The model that we've brought to Albania in cooperation with Italy ... is a model that takes its time to be tested," said Rama.
"If it works, it can be replicated, but not in Albania, in other countries of the region."
Britain's opposition Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch rejected Starmer's "return hubs" plan.
"Starmer is making an effort, but this will NOT stop the boats," she wrote on X.
"We left Labour a real deterrent. This is weaker than the Rwanda plan and won't work," she added.
The Refugee Council called the idea "inhumane, unworkable and a waste of public funds".
'Island of strangers'
In March, the European Commission unveiled a planned reform of the 27-nation bloc's return system, opening the way for member states to set up migrant return centres outside the EU.
Earlier this week Starmer unveiled tough new immigration policies, setting off a storm of criticism when he warned the UK could become "an island of strangers."
The new policies include cutting the number of overseas care workers, doubling the length of time before migrants can qualify for settlement in the country and new powers to deport foreign criminals.
The announcement was widely seen as a bid to fend off rising support for anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage's hard-right Reform UK party.
Labour vowed in its general election manifesto last year to significantly reduce net migration, which stood at 728,000 in the 12 months to last June.
It peaked at 906,000 in 2023 after averaging 200,000 for most of the 2010s.
Asylum figures tripled
In addition to high levels of legal migration, the UK has also seen unprecedented numbers of irregular migrants. And the numbers of asylum seekers has tripled to 84,200 in 2024, compared to 27,500 between 2010 and 2011.
More than 12,500 migrants have made the perilous Channel crossing so far this year, according to an AFP tally based on figures from the UK's interior ministry. They were mainly Afghans, Syrians and Iranians.
Under a 2002 deal, Albanians arriving in the UK on small boats across the Channel can be sent back immediately.
Some 5294 Albanians were sent back in 2024, more than double the 2035 Albanian nationals returned two years earlier.
Starmer also announced an expansion of the Joint Migration Taskforce in the Western Balkans, set up with Albania and Kosovo, to include North Macedonia and Montenegro.
It would allow greater intelligence sharing to intercept smuggling gangs and deploy UK funded drones to snare criminals funnelling migrants through the Western Balkans to the UK.
-AFP
