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Ir Keir Starmer has confirmed that the UK is talking to many countries about “returning the hub” for asylum seekers who have been denied in the UK.
On a visit to Albania on Thursday, the prime minister said using a safe third country could be a “effective” way to remove asylum seekers who have failed, days after planning to cut migration.
Under the scheme, the UK will pay other countries to bring in people who are not eligible to stay in the country, hoping this could serve as a deterrent for irregular migrants.
Speaking on a visit to the port of Duhl in Albania, the sage said, “They need to be returned and we need to make sure they are effectively returned.
Number 10 emphasized that it is different from the UK’s plan. This would have seen irregular immigrants sent immediately to African states without asylum claims in the UK.
The “Returns Hubs” model is applied to individuals who have exhausted all legal routes to stay in the UK, and is accelerating the withdrawal, Downing Street said.
Downing Street did not say which countries the UK is talking to, but did not deny that it included the Western Balkan countries, including Albania.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni also tried to use Albania to help Italy tackle the irregular immigration issue, who had previously exchanged tactics to reduce smuggling.
This year, the Commission has provided plans to allow EU member states to become hubs of revival of bilateral dealings with third countries.
The UN Refugee Agency said last month that it could “properly investigate” the hub if human rights standards and international law were supported.
Keir Starmer shows the steps that the Albanian search team will take when checking vehicles arriving by ferry ©Leon Neal/Getty Images
The prioritization acknowledged that the removal hub scheme “not a silver bullet” to reduce net immigration, but was part of the “armoury” of measures that included arrests and agreements to tackle the flow of illegal immigration.
Downing Street said the scoping work will continue for the next few months, but the first job suggested that the hub will meet UK legal obligations and “cost-effective, viable and fulfill international obligations.”
Officials at Starmer’s Government are considering plans to set up return hubs in the Balkan countries for several months.
Under the Returns Hub scheme, asylum seekers from countries such as Iran and Afghanistan fail and are sent to processing centres in cooperation with the Balkans, which arrange for a return to their country or country of origin.
One UK government official said, “We are reducing the chances of finding additional reasons for them to stay in the UK. It makes removal difficult, for example, by quickly marrying someone or starting a family.”
Starmer’s Government plans to speed up the return of immigrants from the UK. The longer an asylum seeker stays in the UK after an application is rejected, the easier it will be to succeed in the legal challenges of being returned to their home country.
The Ministry of Home Affairs returned 24,000 immigrants between July last year and March 2025. This was the most in the nine-month period since 2017.
But despite Starmer’s pledge to “smash the gangs” to promote transport of asylum seekers across the channel, 2025 has seen the highest level of small boat crossings on record so far.
A total of 12,700 people have arrived at the small boats so far this year, up 33% over the same period last year.
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage asks the prime minister to declare a state of national emergency this week that the party is ahead of the prioritized labor in the vote.
