UK to consider sending asylum seekers abroad
- Published
The UK could send asylum seekers abroad while their applications are processed, under plans considered by ministers.
The idea is expected to be included in a policy paper next week, as part of a wider shake-up of asylum rules after Brexit.
The plan is reportedly being considered to deter migrants from crossing the English Channel.
Home Secretary Priti Patel has previously called the current system "fundamentally broken".
More than 650 people have crossed the Channel in small boats so far during 2021, double the number during the same period in 2020.
The plans have prompted criticism from charities and opposition parties - with Labour calling the idea "absurd".
The Times has reported ministers are set to consult on plans to change the law to allow for asylum seekers to be sent to processing centres abroad.
The newspaper said officials have considered Gibraltar as a possible venue - prompting the British Overseas Territory to write to the UK to seek clarity.
In a letter to Ms Patel, external, its chief minister Fabian Picardo said "this issue has not been raised with me at any level".
Speaking on Thursday, he told BBC News he had "very serious concerns" over the idea, which he dismissed as "entirely unviable".
Self-governing Crown Dependency the Isle of Man, also named as a possible site, said it had also not been contacted by the UK government.
Asked on Thursday whether he felt comfortable with sending asylum seekers abroad, Boris Johnson replied: "The objective here is to save life and avert human misery."
Speaking at the Downing Street briefing, the prime minister said that people crossing the Channel were "being conned" into risking their lives.
"The objective is a humanitarian one and a humane one, which is to stop the abuse of these people by a bunch of traffickers and gangsters," he added.
According to the Daily Mail, the proposals could see migrants arriving in the UK from countries deemed safe barred from making an asylum claim.
Detailed proposals are expected as part of legislation to reshape the UK's post-Brexit asylum rules, expected later this spring.
The UK is no longer bound by the EU's Dublin regulation, external, under which it could transfer asylum seekers to countries in the bloc to have their applications processed.
The government has long criticised this EU law and has said it wants to negotiate new agreements to replace it.
Plans to send people abroad are likely to face stern opposition from charities, as well as promoting legal challenges on rights grounds.
'Unworkable and inhumane'
British Red Cross, which provides support to people seeking asylum, said "offshoring" asylum claims would "do nothing to address the reasons people take dangerous journeys in the first place".
Its Chief Executive Mike Adamson added the move would "almost certainly have grave humanitarian consequences".
Labour's shadow home secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds said the "absurd" idea demonstrated the government had "lost control and all sense of compassion".
Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Alistair Carmichael described the plans as "unworkable and inhumane".
He said the "dysfunctional" Home Office should instead concentrate on clearing the backlog of asylum seekers waiting more than six months for a decision on their claim.
Has this been suggested before?
Many of the migrants crossing the Channel claim asylum once they arrive in the UK. Asylum seekers hope to receive refugee status, meaning they can stay.
To be eligible, they must prove they cannot return to their home country because they fear persecution because of their race, religion, nationality, political opinion or "anything else that puts you at risk because of the social, cultural, religious or political situation in your country, for example gender, gender identity or sexual orientation" the government website says.
Last year the government considered an asylum processing centre on Ascension Island, a UK territory in the Atlantic Ocean - before deciding not to proceed.
The European Union itself has previously explored setting up "disembarkation platforms" in North Africa to screen asylum applications.
Australia has used offshore processing and detention centres for asylum seekers who reach the country by boat since the 1980s.
The centres, based on the Pacific island nation of Nauru and Manus Island in Papua New Guinea, have been criticised by rights groups.
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