UN refugee agency supports key UK return hub proposal

The United Nations refugee agency has supported “return hubs” in a boost to possible UK Government plans to deport failed asylum seekers to third nations. Sir Keir Starmer’s Government has been trying to clamp down on Channel people-smuggling and there have been reports that they might try to send failed asylum seekers to foreign hubs in the Balkans.

UK Home Secretary Yvette Cooper sat down with UN high commissioner for refugees Filippo Grandi last month. Under discussion at the meeting was the possibility of offering to pay Balkan nations to accept Britain’s failed asylum seekers, The Times said.

The UNHCR has outlined how return hubs might operate while satisfying its legal requirements in a report released this week. A UK Government source described it as a useful intervention that could potentially make the legal route to some kind of return hub model smoother.

The UNHCR stated return hubs might “appropriately be explored” and that it might assist countries in utilising them as long as it does not interfere with its mandate to protect refugees. The agency suggested monitoring to ensure human rights standards are “reliably met” at any hubs.

The host nation to the return hub would need to provide temporary legal status to the migrants and the sending state would need to contribute to this in order to ensure there are “adequate accommodation and reception arrangements”, according to the refugee agency. It claimed there had been “growing interest” in the notion of return hubs and the way that they can facilitate returns.

The EU Commission has just suggested that EU members be able to establish so-called “return hubs” overseas. Italy has already begun sending migrants without authorisation to stay in the country to Italian-operated migration detention camps in Albania.

During a summit last month, Sir Keir announced that the UK was “very closely” cooperating with Italian ministers to explore means of processing migrants with asylum claims in a third country. He informed journalists anything that will be considered has to be “consistent with international law” and “cost effective”.

The Prime Minister has promised to “smash the gangs” bringing people across borders to travel to the UK.

Nine thousand ninety-nine migrants have arrived in the English Channel this year. One migrant was killed attempting the crossing on Friday. Over 700 migrants made the crossing on Tuesday, the largest number to arrive in a single day so far this year. There have been more arrivals in January to April 2025 than there were in the same four months of any year since Channel crossings were first recorded in 2018.