Fury as EU set to agree plan to send migrants to ‘deportation camps’ outside Europe after Labour SCRAPS Rwanda
Tory leadership contender Robert Jenrick said that the camps outside the EU were 'not going to succeed'
EU leaders are poised to agree plans to send failed asylum seekers to deportation camps outside its borders.
The dramatic shift comes after the bloc called Rishi Sunak’s Rwanda scheme “not a humane and dignified migration policy”.
Ahead of a meeting tomorrow, President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen wrote to leaders to encourage “out-of-the-box thinking”.
She said they should learn from Italy which this week has begun sending migrants to Albania to be processed.
“We should explore possible ways forward as regards the idea of developing return hubs outside the EU,” she wrote.
The hubs could hold asylum-seekers who have been served with deportation papers by member states.
EU home affairs commissioner Ylva Johansson previously called the Rwanda scheme “not humane and dignified”. Sir Keir Starmer shelved the policy as soon as Labour came to power.
Tory leadership contender Robert Jenrick said Italy-style camps outside the EU would not succeed.
He told Times Radio: “That’s a policy that we have considered which is called offshore processing.
“Yes, here individuals are sent to a country and their applications heard.
“If they are successful they then come to your country. If not, your country still has to take responsibility and find them a way back to their home country or another safe country.
“I don’t see that as a viable way forwards. The proposal that I pursued, the Rwanda scheme, was a different one.
“That is one whereby if you try to come illegally to the United Kingdom you will be removed and never come back.”