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Home secretary Yvette Cooper has said the UK is looking at an Italian-style asylum processing scheme in Albania, as London seeks to prevent more small boat crossings in the English Channel.
Ahead of talks between UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni in Rome on Monday, Cooper said the UK was interested in “four different things” Italy was doing to tackle irregular immigration.
They included tackling organised crime in lockstep with European partners, working with other countries “upstream” to stop people leaving north Africa in the first place, and “major returns” for people who do not have a right to be in the country.
“The fourth thing they’re doing is the Albania programme, but that hasn’t started yet, so we’ll need to see what that does,” she said.
Italy’s government, led by Meloni’s far-right Brothers of Italy party, has curbed irregular migration by about 60 per cent from last year when it had surged sharply.
Cooper said Italy’s Albania programme is “very different” from the Rwanda scheme that was planned by the UK’s previous Conservative government, which Labour scrapped after being elected in July.
But the UK has not ruled out arrangements under which asylum claims could be processed offshore, in line with Italy’s agreement with Albania.
She added: “We have always said we will look at anything that works. Clearly things have to be workable, they have to be financially viable and they also have to meet international standards as well.”
There are crucial differences between the two schemes. Under the Rwandan model, people deported could only claim asylum in the central African country. By contrast, Italians processed in Albania will still be able to claim asylum in Italy.
Cooper said the Italy-Albania scheme was being monitored by the UN’s refugee agency, the UNHCR, “to make sure that proper standards are in place”.
She also stressed that the focus of ministers’ efforts is cracking down on the criminal gangs behind the human trafficking trade.
On Sunday French authorities said eight people had died trying to cross the Channel after their boat got into difficulty, taking the death toll in attempted crossings to 46 so far this year.