Starmer 'interested in Italy's migrant deal' with Albania ahead of visit to Rome to meet right-wing PM Meloni
15 September 2024, 20:59
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has said he is 'interested' in Italy's deal with Albania to send migrants there after they are rescued at sea.
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The newly-elected British PM has made the comments ahead of his first visit to Rome to meet Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Monday.
Under the terms of the deal, Italy sends migrants rescued crossing over sea from places such as North Africa to Albania for their asylum claims to be processed.
When asked on Saturday about the scheme, Sir Keir told reporters: "Let's see. It's in early days, I'm interested in how that works, I think everybody else is.”
The deal echoes the Rwanda bill which was championed by Sir Keir's Conservative predecessor Rishi Sunak - but diverges in that successful applicants are not forced to stay in Rwanda.
Meloni's flagship deal sees migrants who are determined to be from safe countries, and who are not classified as vulnerable, sent to Albanian while their claims are processed.
The scheme intends to see the vast majority of those sent to Albania to have their claims rejected - because Italy has determined that their country of origin is safe.
The scheme has seen a sharp drop in those making the crossing across the Mediterranean Sea to enter Europe - with other countries now looking to follow suit as they deal with their own migration crises.
Just over 43,000 have arrived in Italy so far this year, according to the United Nations, compared to a total of nearly 158,000 in 2023.
Starmer will meet the far-right Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Monday in Rome.
Top of the agenda will be migration - as both countries try to cut down irregular migration by sea.
The issue soared to the top of the political agenda on Sunday - after least eight migrants died while attempting to cross the English Channel.
The incident in the early hours also saw a 10-month-old baby rushed to hospital in critical condition.
The incident happened off the coast of Ambleteuse in the Pas-de-Calais region of northern France overnight, local media said.
Jacques Billant, the prefect of Pas-de-Calais, said the boat "quickly" got into trouble after it set off, and appears to have crashed into rocks.
He said six people were taken to hospital "in relative emergency," including a 10-month-old baby with hypothermia.
The eight who died were all adult men.
Survivors of the accident come from Eritrea, Sudan, Syria, Afghanistan, Egypt and Iran, he added.
A UK Government spokesperson said French authorities are leading the investigation.
"We can confirm there has been an incident in the Channel involving a small boat in French waters," the spokesperson said.
"French authorities are leading the response and investigation. We will not be commenting further at this stage."
