Starmer says the United Kingdom in conversations with “Hubs returns” to take failed asylum seekers

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Sir Keir Starmer has confirmed that the United Kingdom talks to several countries about converting “return” for asylum seekers who have rejected their claims in the United Kingdom.

On a visit to Albania on Thursday, the Prime Minister said that the use of third -party third countries could be an “effective” way to eliminate failed asylum seekers, days after the creation of plans to reduce immigration.

According to the regime, Britain would pay other countries to bring people not to be eligible to stay in the country, hoping that this can act as a deterrent element for irregular migrants.

TightSpeaking on a visit to the Albanian port of Durres, he said: “We must return them and we must assure you that they are effectively returned. We will, if we can – through return nuclei.”

Number 10 stressed the Britain Plan was different from the Conservative Rwanda regime, which would have seen irregular migrants immediately sent to the African state without having heard an asylum claim in the United Kingdom.

The “Return Hubs” model would apply to people who have exhausted all the legal routes to stay in the United Kingdom, accelerating the removals, said Downing Street.

Downing Street did not say which countries spoke Britain, but did not deny that they would include Western Balkan countries, including Albania.

The Prime Minister of Italy, Giorgia Meloni, with whom Starmer has previously had Exchanged tactics In order to reduce the smuggling of people, he has also tried to use Albania to help Italy address his irregular migration problem.

This year the European Commission established plans to allow EU Member States to conclude bilateral agreements with third countries to become a return nuclei.

The United Nations Refugee Agency said that last month, returns on returns could be “properly explored” as long as human rights standards and international law were confirmed.

Starmer acknowledged that a scheme of moves was not a “silver bullet” in reducing clean migration, but was part of a “armory” of measures that include arrests and agreements with other countries to combat the flow of illicit migrants.

Downing Street said that the approach work would continue in the coming months, but the initial work suggested that the Hubs returns met the legal obligations of Britain and that they were “profitable, viable and fulfilled our international obligations”.

Starmer government officials have been examining plans to establish returns hubs in Balkan countries for several months.

By virtue of the center’s returns regime, unsuccessful asylum seekers of countries such as Iran and Afghanistan would be sent to processing centers in co -operating Balkan countries, which in turn would organize their return to their country or origin.

A UK government official said, “We are reducing opportunities to find more reasons to stay in the United Kingdom, such as marrying someone quickly or starting with a family, which makes it difficult to withdraw.”

The Starmer government has established plans to accelerate the returns of Britain’s migrants. Longer failed Asylum seekers stay in Britain after their requests have been rejected, it is easier for them to promote successful legal challenges to be returned to their country of origin.

The Home Office returned 24,000 migrants between July and March 2025, the largest number of any nine -month period since 2017.

But despite Starmer’s promise to “destroy bands” by feeding the transport of asylum seekers throughout the channel, in 2025 he has so far seen the highest levels of small crossings of ships in record.

A total of 12,700 people have reached small vessels until this year, 33 percent of the same period last year.

The leader of the United Kingdom of the Reformation, Nigel Farage, whose party is ahead of Starmer’s work at the polls, asked the Prime Minister this week to declare that the crossings of the channel are a national emergency.