Keir Starmer steps up migrant crackdown as he announces 'return hubs' for failed asylum seekers
15 May 2025, 11:13 | Updated: 15 May 2025, 13:25
The UK will send failed asylum seekers to 'return hubs' in third countries ahead of deportation, Sir Keir Starmer has announced.
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The 'return hubs' for failed asylum seekers comes as the Government seeks to crack down on small boats crossing the Channel.
On a trip to Albania on Thursday, Sir Keir Starmer announced that the Government would begin exploring the possibility of sending failed asylum seekers for processing in third countries prior to deportation.
Speaking on Thursday, Starmer said: “What now we want to do and are having discussions of, talks of, is return hubs, which is where someone has been through the system in the UK, they need to be returned and we have to make sure they’re returned effectively and we’ll do that, if we can, through return hubs.”
The Government would not comment on which countries would be involved in the talks, but Starmer said the UK is in talks with "a number of countries about return hubs."
He added: "At the appropriate time, I'll be able to give you further details in relation to it."
Speaking alongside Starmer at a press conference in Tirana, Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama suggested his country was not open to hosting the hubs.
"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," he told reporters in the Albanian capital.
The announcement comes in the same week that the number of people crossing the Channel in small boats passed 12,000 for the year, putting 2025 on course to be a record year for crossings.
Sir Keir said establishing return hubs would not be a “silver bullet” for halting the crossings.
But combined with other measures to tackle smuggling gangs and return those with no right to be in the UK, it would “allow us to bear down on this vile trade and make sure that we stop those people crossing the Channel”.
If established, the return hubs will target failed asylum seekers who are seeking to frustrate their deportation or have lost their paperwork.
By removing them to another country, the Government hopes to reduce their ability to find other reasons to prevent deportation, such as starting a family.
It is also expected to act as a deterrent to further crossings, but differs from the previous government’s Rwanda scheme as it would only apply to failed asylum seekers who have exhausted their avenues for appeal.
Officials will conduct negotiations with potential host countries over the coming months.
Italy currently operates a similar programme with Albania, sending failed asylum seekers to the country while they await deportation.
The Italian scheme was intended to provide offshore processing for migrants, but that plan has been held up by legal action.
While in Tirana, the Prime Minister also announced that the UK agreed a "joint statement of intent" on defence industry co-operation with Albania.
Starmer said the countries would "work together on the manufacture and sale of military vehicles, so another important step forward for our two countries".
He added: "this is a moment for European countries to step up and stand firm against Russian aggression on the continent, and later today I will be visiting Albanian and UK troops who are working together to defend our freedoms and citizens, because the battle lines of Ukraine are the front lines of western values."
Migration is also likely to feature during talks at the European Political Community summit in Tirana on Friday, along with discussion of defence and Ukraine.
Earlier, Edi Rama hit out at how Albanians had been "stigmatised" in the UK.
Speaking via a translator, the Albanian prime minister claimed citizens of the Balkan nation living in Britain had contributed in a "dignified way" but had been negatively represented "as if they were the problem of the UK" by "several media sources".
But Starmer would not be drawn into apologising on the UK's behalf for the negative depictions of Albanians.
Asked if he would say sorry, the Prime Minister said: "Look, I think the fact that I'm the first British Prime Minister to be here in Albania, having a bilateral meeting, should be seen as a statement of intent as to the regard that I hold Albania and this prime minister (Edi Rama)."
He added: "I won't comment on previous prime ministers in Britain, but my approach is not megaphone diplomacy. It is to do the hard yards of actually dealing with the problems that we have to address."
Mr Rama meanwhile said it was "not any British prime minister that did anything to offend the Albanians and to single out the Albanians".
A few "other individuals" had been responsible for such depictions he said, adding: "Cursing the Albanians was not a good idea, because the curse went back and they are now out of the Parliament. So, it is enough. We don't need more than that."
