The Prime Minister has hinted that he is interested in Italy’s migration policy that it has developed with Albania.
It comes as Sir Keir Starmer is set to meet Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Monday.
Just today it was reported that a 10-month-old baby was rescued from the English Channel after a small both ‘tore apart on rocks’, killing eight people.
In reference to the talks in Italy, Starmer said: ‘We’ll be able to talk about irregular migration, and other things as well.
‘It’ll be a feature as it was a feature when I spoke to Chancellor (Olaf) Scholz; as it was a feature when I spoke to Emmanuel Macron.’
The PM said his Italian counterpart ‘has of course got some strong ideas and I hope to discuss those with her’.
Asked whether he would consider pursuing an agreement similar to the one Italy has struck with Albania, Starmer replied: ‘Let’s see.
‘It’s in early days, I’m interested in how that works, I think everybody else is.
‘It’s very, very early days.’
Under the policy, Albania accepts asylum seekers on Italy’s behalf while their claims are being processed.
Meloni signed a deal with Albania last year to send some asylum seekers to the Balkan country and process the asylum requests there.
Their cases will be processed at a centre being built at a nearby air base in Gjader, which can hold 3,000 people.
Only those asylum seekers who come from countries that Italy deems safe will be able to be processed in Albania.
Meloni confirmed that pregnant women, minors and other vulnerable people would not be sent to Albania.
She said officials would endeavour to examine asylum requests within 28 days, much faster than the months it currently takes in Italy and requests that are accepted would be brought back to Italy.
But the majority of requests are expected to be rejected, because the countries the asylum seekers come from are considered safe and those whose requests are turned down will be detained ahead of their eventual repatriation.
Starmer axed the previous Tory government’s Rwanda scheme as one of his first moves in office, declaring the scheme as ‘dead and buried’.
That scheme sought to enable asylum claims to be processed in Rwanda, unlike the Italy-Albania plans, whereby asylum seekers are to be held in the Balkan country but dealt with under Italian jurisdiction.
Starmer said in relation to migration, there were ‘different challenges in different countries’.
He has previously suggested he would be open to offshore asylum processing, but has not indicated that the option is currently being actively explored.
‘In Germany I was particularly concerned that a very large percentage of the boats’ engines that are ending up being used for the Channel crossings that are going through Germany,’ he said.
‘And I think that they should take further opportunities to seize them on their journey.
‘Obviously with Macron it was very much about what to do on the northern coast of France.’
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