Independent readers question Italy’s Albania scheme – but still want Starmer to act on migration

Sir Keir Starmer has set tongues wagging this week, after apparently showing “great interest” in Italy’s controversial scheme to send migrants to be processed offshore.

It came as the country’s leader Giorgia Meloni defended her deal with Albania, brushing aside humanitarian concerns as “completely groundless”.

Sir Keir has not ruled out a similar scheme in the UK and said he would employ “British pragmatism” when it comes to solving the small boats crisis, after a summit with Ms Meloni in Rome.

When we asked for your opinions, some readers argued for outsourcing migration processes, suggesting it could streamline operations. However, questions were also raised about the cost-effectiveness of offshoring versus improving domestic processing.

While some proposed setting up processing centres in other countries, others argued for investing in safer migration routes and expediting claim processing as a more effective approach.

There was also strong support for stricter domestic policies. Suggestions included limiting government services to UK citizens and denying settlement to illegal entrants. Critics argued that current policies are too lenient, with concerns about the UK’s capacity to handle rising numbers of migrants without overburdening infrastructure.

Here’s what you had to say:

Just process applications in France. Anyone crossing would be easily and legally returned to the processing center.

That would immediately reduce the market for dinghy rides by 80-90 percent as that’s the number the Tories home office said were legit.

And, as the Dublin Accord proved, not many would be willing to pay for the trip knowing it was a round trip.

Ron

They’ve outsourced everything else so why not migration? Bit of a surprise that the big four consultancy firms haven’t been given massive contracts to do a feasibility study on this.

captaintripps

Amnesty International urge “…take leadership instead”. What on earth does that mean? What do they propose in practical terms?

Also why, when both the Rwanda plan started to deter illegals and the Albanian plan has reduced Italy’s influx by 60 per cent is it still questioned whether offshoring works º of course it bloomin’ well does. Just do it.

BayLeaf

We could easily implement laws that would make the UK less attractive to illegal migrants. First, restrict government services exclusively to UK citizens. Second, ensure that anyone entering the country illegally is permanently denied the right to settle. These are practical measures that could be enacted quickly to send a strong message and deter illegal migration.

However, I suspect a Labour government would likely avoid these steps due to their open-door, ideologically driven stance on immigration.

AndrewAndrew

The UK population has increased considerably over the past few years.

The infrastructure has not increased at the same rate – housing, schools, hospitals, etc.

Forget colour, ethnicity and religion. The UK cannot support thousands of illegal immigrants year after year, it’s called illegal for a reason. The simplest way to stop it is to return all to their country of birth. No more boats, then work on the legal route of considering asylum cases.

The world is changing and year on year migration and illegal immigration to Europe and the UK will increase until the UK is on its knees and anarchy will prevail.

Time for the UK government to realise that now is the time for action as it will only get worse, a small island has limited capacity and we are going downhill fast. Tell the PM to take a walk through towns and cities all over the UK where non-UK citizens have taken over and turned the areas into ghettos, putting your hand over your eyes and crossing your fingers doesn’t work.

BBW

Does the UK have big problems sending failed asylum seekers back to safe countries? If so, would spending a load of money setting up accommodation and a processing centre in another country sort it?

Italian staff travel to Albania (not that far from the east coast as it happens) and get better pay for being there than equivalents assessing non-safe country migrants back home.

If an asylum seeker proves their point (on exceptional grounds like female mutilation risk or persecution for being gay) then they are transferred to Italy. If they don’t Italy sends them back to a safe country – Italy lists 22 such countries. None of them are in the UK’s top five arrivals list.

Took quite a while for the Albanian courts and parliament to agree to the Italian deal – and the government say one deal is enough.

So should the UK just be better at processing claims, rather than copying the Italian’s not-cheap scheme?

avidmidlandsreader

Stop dangling the carrot and they will stop coming, they look on the UK as Eldorado, with everything paid for, a nice hotel room and money to spend, stop giving it and they will stop coming.

Asylum means reaching the first safe country you reach, how many countries have these gone through to get to Eldorado?

Lubilu

That’s disturbing, Italy investing in the UK in their arms manufacturing company Leonardo, while Starmer invests in Meloni’s “Rome Process” scheme in Albania for “irregular” migrants. That’s an appalling, sick exchange and says a lot about Starmer. Why not just cut to the chase and invest in safe routes, fasting processing of claims and clearing the backlog?!

Benitas

Without any social programme to offer the working class, capitalist parties across Europe are seeking to build constituencies based on the xenophobic nationalism associated with the fascist right: austerity and repression at home, imperialism and war abroad.

sinisterfootwear

Millions were thrown against Rwanda and now Albania millions more, does he know what he is doing?

Worker

Some of the comments have been edited for this article. You can read the full discussion in the comments section of the original articles here and here.

All you have to do is sign up, submit your question and register your details - then you can then take part in the discussion. You can also sign up by clicking ‘log in’ on the top right-hand corner of the screen.

Make sure you adhere to our community guidelines, which can be found here. For a full guide on how to comment click here.