Could Labour's 'return hubs' plan tackle soaring immigration? (2025)

‘Return hubs’ have been touted as a possible new weapon in the Government’s arsenal to beat soaring illegal immigration in the UK.

Sir Keir Starmer has pledged to “smash the gangs” smuggling people across borders to travel to the UK.

Last November, revised official figures showed net migration to the UK hit a record 906,000 in 2023, and was 728,000 for the year to June 2024.

A total of 9,099 migrants have crossed the English Channel so far this year including more than 700 on Tuesday, the highest number of arrivals on a single day this year.

Last month, the Prime Minster said the UK was working “very closely” with Italian ministers to consider ways to process migrants with asylum claims in a third country. Italy has been pioneering a return hub type system with Albania.

But he said anything considered has got to be “consistent with international law” and “cost effective”.

Now it appears the United Nations refugee agency has endorsed the idea of “return hubs”.

The UN’s High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) set out how “returns hub” could work while meeting its legal standards in a document published this week.

It said the hubs could “appropriately be explored” and the agency could play a role in supporting countries to use them as long as it does not conflict with its mandate to protect refugees. It recommended monitoring to ensure human rights standards are “reliably met” at any hubs.

A Government source said this was a helpful intervention which could make the legal pathway to some form of return hub model potentially smoother.

What are ‘return hubs’?

The so-called “return hubs'” are essentially detention centres, located outside European borders in third countries.

In this case a third country means somewhere which is neither the nation of origin nor the destination of choice for a migrant.

The centres would be used to hold those whose application for asylum has failed and have no further avenues of appeal in the process.

Those being sent to the hubs could include people from countries with which the UK does not have a returns agreement such as Afghanistan and Somalia.

It would differ from the former government’s Rwanda deportation policy, which involved sending illegal immigrants to the African nation before an application for asylum was made.

The country hosting the “return hub” would need to grant temporary legal status to migrants.

And from the hubs, they would either be assimilated into the local community or sent back to their country of origin.

As part of any such deal, the UK government would have to provide support to ensure “adequate accommodation and reception arrangements” as set out by the UNHCR.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper met the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi last month.

And it is understood that during the meeting she discussed the possibility of such an arrangement with third countries.

Which are countries could be involved?

The Balkans have been mooted as a possible location for these kind of centres.

According to The Times, Albania, Serbia, Bosnia and North Macedonia are likely potential locations for the UK’s ‘return hubs’.

All four remain outside of the EU, although Albania, North Macedonia and Bosnia Herzegovina are in the middle of accession negotiations with the EU.

The Home Office has not confirmed if any of these are being considered as hosts for potential “return hubs”.

However, Albania has already been used by Italy for a similar scheme.

Whathappened to Italy’s scheme?

Italy formally opened two migration centres in the port of Shengjin, Albania last October.

They were intended to house up to 3,000 men a month, who had been intercepted in international waters trying to cross from Africa to Europe, while their asylum requests are processed in Italy.

Children, women and vulnerable individuals will still be taken to Italy.

A deal between Italy and Albania was struck in November 2023, with Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni reportedly saying she would do everything in her power to support Albania’s accession to the EU.

The centres were reported to have cost Italy £564m and although run by Italy would have Albanian guards providing the external security.

However, a series of court rulings in Italy hampered the use of the centres for this purpose.

Seven asylum seekers from Bangladesh and Egypt were sent back to Italy from Albania after a court in Rome refused a formal request to detain them in the Balkan nation in November 2024.

And the first 12 asylum seekers sent to Albania were returned to Italy after another court decision in October 2024.

The Italian courts referred both cases to the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg to rule if the asylum seekers’ countries of origin are considered safe for repatriation.

Last month, the Italian government decided to repurpose one of the migration centres in Albania into a “repatriation detention centre”.

This means the facility will now house migrants who have already arrived on Italian soil, had had their asylum request rejected and received a deportation order.

It comes after the EU Commission recently proposed allowing EU members to set up so-called “return hubs” abroad.