Report: London wants to send refugees to remote areas

According to a press report, the British government wants to send people to third countries and overseas regions to process their asylum applications as a deterrent.

The Times reported today that the overseas territory of Gibraltar on the southern tip of Spain and the Isle of Man in the Irish Sea, which is royal and not officially part of the United Kingdom. Other countries such as Turkey will also be discussed.

Gibraltar contrasts

In addition, people entering illegally from a safe country like France should be deported immediately. The law also stipulated life imprisonment for people smuggling and the establishment of reception centers.

Aid organizations have criticized the plans, describing them as “inhumane and morally reprehensible.” However, the Gibraltar government stressed that there were no talks. The area is unavailable for legal and geographic reasons.

Entry through the English Channel should be stopped

The newspaper wrote that the aim of the radical reform was to stop illegal entry across the English Channel. In 2020, 8,420 people came to Great Britain across the strait, mostly in small boats, which is a record.

This year there were more than 800. So far, according to the government, many people risk crossing over after their asylum applications are rejected in the European Union.

Remember Australia

The plans that Home Secretary Priti Patel plans to present soon are reminiscent of Australia’s controversial refugee policy. The country is holding hundreds of refugees and asylum seekers in concentration camps on the Pacific island of Nauru and on Manus Island in Papua New Guinea.

Last year, the British government was said to have considered harboring people on the British outlying islands of Ascension and St. Helena in the Atlantic Ocean. This idea was dismissed as unrealistic, the Times now reports.