Britain is looking at an Italian-style asylum claims’ processing scheme in Albania, says Yvette Cooper as more migrants are dying in desperate attempts to cross the Channel to reach Britain.
The Home Secretary stressed that the focus of the Government’s actions was currently on smashing the criminal gangs behind the human trafficking trade.
But she also confirmed, as Sir Keir Starmer prepared to meet Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni in Rome, that the two countries are seeking to co-operate on multiple fronts.
Ms Cooper told BBC Breakfast: “There are four different things that the Italians are doing that we’re interested in.
“The first is the work that they are doing around organised immigration crime. That’s the work that we are substantially gearing up, where we will be doing a huge technology upgrade as well, and where we want to work with Italy, with Germany, with other European countries, with France as well.
“The second thing they’re doing is they’re working with other countries upstream to prevent people leaving North Africa in the first place…working with Tunisia, we think we should be part of those international co-operations as well.
“The third thing they’re doing is major returns. So they’re speeding up returns for those who don’t have a right to be there. We’ve been doing that through the summer as well, so we’ve had a substantial increase in returns for people who don’t have a right to be in the UK, because the rules need to be respected and enforced.
“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. It’s very different from the Rwanda partnership that the UK government had, and we’ll have to see how that plays out.
But Ms Cooper stressed that Italy’s planned third-country processing deal with Albania is “very, very different” from the previous UK government’s Rwanda scheme.
The Home Secretary told Good Morning Britain: “It’s very, very different. So the arrangement that they have in place – and look, it’s not working yet, so we don’t know how it will play out – but it is a very, very different approach.
“First of all, this is Italian processing taking place in Albania. It has UNHCR oversight, so it is being monitored to make sure that it meets international standards.
“It’s being done in cooperation between those two countries, and what they’re actually doing is looking at those people who arrive in Italy, who have come from predominantly safe countries, and they’re using it as a way to try and fast-track decisions and returns.
“Now we think there is another way we can fast-track decisions and returns for people who arrive from predominantly safer countries.
“We should be fast-tracking those cases. We should be making sure you don’t have people spending years in the asylum system, which ends up being hugely costly, hugely chaotic. That’s the system we’ve inherited.”
Ms Cooper also told how former Met Police chief Martin Hewitt is to play a key role leading Britain’s fight to make migration crime gangs behind cross-Channel crossings “pay the price” for the impact of their human trafficking trade, including rising fatalities.
Ahead of the talks with Ms Meloni, Sir Keir said Mr Hewitt, a former chair of the National Police Chiefs’ Council and ex-Assistant Commissioner at Scotland Yard, would run a new Border Security Command which would be empowered to lead joint investigations with other countries.
Mr Hewitt also oversaw the UK’s enforcement of lockdown laws during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Speaking on Monday morning, Ms Cooper said: “Martin Hewitt who was a former police chief and former army officer has huge experience around law enforcement.
“He will lead the new Border Security Command which is bringing together Border Force, the National Crime Agency, police forces, intelligence and security agencies, but also crucially working with European law enforcement in order to go after the criminal gangs and to make sure that they pay the price.
“They are getting away with this at the moment.
“It’s deeply damaging.”
On Sunday, French authorities said eight people had died trying to cross the Channel after their boat got into difficulty, bringing the death toll in attempted crossings to 46 since the start of the year.
The Prime Minister has put renewing ties with European leaders at the top of his diplomatic agenda since winning an election in July, and Monday’s visit to Rome follows trips to Berlin, Paris and Dublin in recent weeks.
Heading to Rome to meet Ms Meloni, who had close ties with Sir Keir’s predecessor Rishi Sunak, the PM will stress his commitment to tackling illegal migration and the need to work with European partners to smash the business model of the illegal networks that fuel it.
The new Government has scrapped the previous government’s contentious plan to deport asylum seekers who arrive in small boats to Rwanda, but has not ruled out arrangements that would see asylum claims processed offshore, similar to an agreement Italy has struck with Albania.
Ministers have said that they will step up deportation flights and use money saved from the Rwanda scheme to help law enforcement to tackle the crossings.
During his visit to Italy, Sir Keir will visit the National Coordination Centre for Migration to discuss Italy’s approach to the issue, which has seen a 60 per cent drop in irregular arrivals by sea, his office said.
He will also raise defence matters in the talks with Ms Meloni, which could touch on Britain’s involvement in the GCAP fighter jet project with Italy and Japan.
In July, the Prime Minister emphasised the programme’s importance, dampening some speculation it could be axed in a defence review, but he stopped short of guaranteeing continued British involvement.
