Keir Starmer has revealed that the government is “in talks” with other countries about introducing “return hubs” for refused asylum seekers, despite scrapping the Rwanda scheme on his first day as prime minister.
The PM confirmed the plan at a press conference alongside his Albanian counterpart Edi Rama, where the pair announced plans to strengthen cooperation to tackle illegal migration.
Sir Keir described the hubs as a “really important innovation” that complements other measures the government is taking to crack down on criminal smuggling gangs.
“We are in talks with a number of countries about return hubs,” he said.
“At the appropriate time, I’ll be able to give you further details in relation to it.”
However, many believe Starmer has dramatically changed his rhetoric on immigration after Reform won a by-election, council, and mayoral contests at this month’s local elections.
Last year, he labelled the Rwanda scheme a “gimmick” instead creating an “elite Border Security Command”
“I’m not going to continue a policy I don’t think is going to work, which is going to cost a fortune,” the Labour leader said.
Yesterday, he claimed that return hubs are a “really important innovation” that complements other measures the government is taking to crack down on criminal smuggling gangs.
“We are in talks with a number of countries about return hubs,” he told reporters. “At the appropriate time, I’ll be able to give you further details in relation to it.”
Sir Keir did not say which countries the government is discussing the policy with.
Albanian leader Edi Rama said his country would not agree to any deportation deals with the UK, saying: “We have been asked by several countries if we were open to it, and we said no, because we are loyal to the marriage with Italy and the rest is just love.”
By relocating them to another country, the government aims to limit their opportunities to establish new grounds for avoiding deportation, such as forming a family.
The prime minister’s 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.
“It will ensure that they don’t have the chance to make their removal harder by using tactics such as starting a family, et cetera, as we have seen from cases in the past.
“That obviously will reduce the cost to the taxpayer.”
Related: Top Tory Chris Philp admits Brexit made it harder to return asylum seekers