Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has confirmed that the Government is engaged in active international discussions about potentially establishing third-country return hubs for failed asylum seekers.
Mahmood said ministers were examining models under which people with no right to remain in the United Kingdom could be sent to a safe third country when returning them directly to their country of origin was not possible.
Speaking to The Sun, the Home Secretary said: "We are also looking at third-country hubs, returns hubs models. These are live conversations that are happening across Europe, but in other parts of the world as well."
No agreement announced
No participating country, completed agreement, timetable or estimated cost has been announced. Mahmood's comments therefore confirm that discussions are taking place, rather than that a return-hub scheme has been approved or is ready to begin operating.
The Government had already stated in its asylum and returns policy that negotiations with a number of countries were ongoing. That policy describes return hubs as safe third countries to which failed asylum seekers could be sent instead of their country of origin.
Different from former Rwanda scheme
The proposal has been compared in some reports with the former Conservative Government's Rwanda policy, but there is an important distinction between the two approaches.
The Rwanda scheme was intended to relocate certain people seeking asylum in Britain so that their claims could be considered in Rwanda. The return hubs now under discussion would instead apply to people whose asylum claims had already been refused and who had no legal right to remain in the UK.
Mahmood maintained that the Government had been right to cancel the Rwanda scheme, saying that it "was not working and did not work", while confirming that ministers remained willing to consider legally compliant arrangements involving third countries.
Legal and practical questions remain
Any eventual arrangement would need to comply with domestic and international law, including safeguards governing the treatment of those transferred. The Government would also need to reach an agreement with a willing host country and explain how the hubs would operate in practice.
Until such an agreement is announced, the policy remains under discussion. Mahmood's comments do not mean that removals to a third-country hub have begun.