Human rights groups have condemned Italy’s ‘dodgy’ Rwanda-style deal with Albania to offshore asylum seekers but as Starmer travels to Rome to meet Meloni, he admits he is open to copying it

The prime ministers of Britain and Italy, Keir Starmer and Giorgia Meloni, at Blenheim Palace during July’s European Political Community meeting (PA Wire)

Keir Starmer is open to sending asylum seekers to Albania as he prepares to hold a mini summit with Italy’s prime minister Giorgia Meloni.

The prime minister told journalists travelling with him to Washington DC before he flew to Rome that he would see how Italy’s deal with Albania worked in terms of offshoring processing of asylum claims.

Within days of taking power in July, Sir Keir cancelled the UK’s controversial deal with Rwanda which had been set up by the previous Tory government at a cost of £700m to the taxpayer.

But he now appears open to similar schemes in a European country.

This follows German chancellor Olaf Scholz’s decision to take up the facilities in Rwanda that the UK paid for to deal with asylum seekers to his country.

Asked specifically about Italy’s Albania scheme, Sir Keir replied: “Let’s see. It’s early days. I’m interested in how that works, I think everybody else is. It’s very very early days.”

The Italian plan has been criticised by many and involves opening camps for asylum seekers which will hold up to 3,000 people. Ms Meloni’s government has dramatically reduced the number of people coming across the Mediterranean to Italy from north Africa.

The deal has been condemned by Human Rights Watch, whose associate director for Europe Judith Sunderland wrote: “Italy’s latest gambit to offshore its responsibilities is all but guaranteed to violate people’s rights. Following its abusive deal with Libya, Italy now wants to take people who have effectively reached the country outside of the EU, breaching fundamental tenets of rescue at sea and undermining asylum rights and freedom from arbitrary detention. It is also unlikely to deter people from making dangerous boat crossings.”

Amnesty has raised concerns about human rights in Albania, citing the killing of journalists in the country, concerns over the right to a fair trial, killings in prisons, a “hostile environment” for the LGBT+ community, and violence against women and girls.

On the Italy deal it noted: “Human rights organisations and others expressed concern about the impact this could have on the human rights of refugees, asylum seekers, and migrants, including automatic and therefore arbitrary detention.”

Sir Keir confirmed to journalists that he will be discussing the issue as record numbers of asylum seekers continue to cross the Channel on small boats.

The prime minister said: “We’ll be able to talk about irregular migration, and other things as well.

“It will be a feature as it was a feature when I spoke to Chancellor Scholz; as it was a feature when I spoke to [French president] Emmanuel Macron.”

He noted that there are “different challenges in different countries”.

“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 are going through Germany. And I think that they should take further opportunities to seize them on their journey,” he said.

“Obviously with Macron, it was very much about what to do on the northern coast of France.

“I’ve already had a preliminary discussion with Georgia Meloni about this, about how we can work together on irregular migration. She has of course got some strong ideas and I hope to discuss those with her.

“She and I have already discussed how we can improve joint operations, so that is something we will discuss.”