PM backs Patel on overseas asylum centres

PLANS to send asylum seekers abroad for processing will ‘ save life and avert human misery’, Boris Johnson said yesterday.

He spoke after the Mail revealed that Priti Patel plans to change the law to allow migrants who arrive from safe countries such as France to be sent overseas to have their cases assessed.

The plan to ‘offshore’ claims sparked anger from charities, with the Refugee Council branding it ‘inhumane’. And it was dismissed by Gibraltar and the Isle of Man after they were named as possible destinations if efforts fail to find a third country willing to process asylum seekers for cash.

But the Prime Minister defended the ‘humanitarian’ approach, saying it would combat ‘traffickers and gangsters’ who control Channel crossings. Under a ‘fair but firm’ approach, the Home Secretary will also open up ‘safe and legal’ routes to Britain direct from crisis zones.

The Common Sense Group of Tory MPs backed the plans to fix the ‘broken’ system.

However, Gibraltar’s chief minister, Fabian Picardo, flatly rejected the idea that asylum seekers could be sent to the Rock. He said: ‘We will not ever shirk our responsibility to help wherever we can. Our geography makes some things difficult, however, and the processing of asylum seekers to the UK in Gibraltar would be one of them.’

The Isle of Man government said it had received no such request from London. A spokesman said: ‘The Isle of Man is self-governing, the UK Government would not be able to open any sort of processing centre on the island without consent.’