Failed asylum seekers could be deported to safe countries under new Labour plans
FAILED asylum seekers could be deported to safe countries under plans being considered by Labour.
PM Sir Keir Starmer was asked by reporters if he was looking at such schemes at Britain’s illegal migration summit yesterday.
Sir Keir said his government is “considering anything that works” in the battle against small boat crossings.
Return hubs would take in those who have exhausted all appeals processes but cannot return to home countries such as Afghanistan, Iran, or Syria.
But Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp slammed Sir Keir for his “catastrophic mistake” of cancelling the Rwanda deportation scheme soon after taking office.
Italian PM Giorgia Meloni has touted plans to process her own refugee rejects in Albania.
Earlier in the month, The Sun reported that £1million had been wasted on old planes to be used in the failed Rwanda migrants scheme.
Home Office chiefs splashed out £671,000 on fuselages to be used in training for removals.
Since the controversial scheme was axed, taxpayers face another £268,000 bill for having them kept in storage — by the firm that originally supplied them.
The total bill for just this part of the doomed plan, scrapped by Labour last July, is £939,000.
Three old Airbus fuselages were bought for Border Force officers to practice getting migrants on flights to Africa.
They were set up in a film studio hangar — used for Netflix competition show Squid Game: The Challenge, Batman blockbusters and a Rihanna video.
The hangar at Cardington Airfield, Beds, was hired for training for 15 months until the end of last year at a cost of £6,425,285 — meaning the facility was unused for at least six months.
The plane bodies were briefly used for training but have been kept at Cotswold Airport, Gloucs, since November.