Ghana denies it is in talks with UK over offshore asylum centre for English Channel migrants
18th January 2022
Ghana has denied that it is in talks with Britain about hosting a controversial offshore asylum processing centre for migrants crossing the English Channel in small boats.
The country was named alongside Rwanda on Monday as one of two African nations which have been approached by the British government to set up an outsourced immigration hub where hundreds of migrants arriving in the UK from France could be flown while their asylum claims are processed.
The scheme is part of the Government’s strategy to try to stem the number of dangerous Channel crossings by having the journeys declared illegal under the new Nationality and Borders Bill and flying migrants thousands of miles from the UK while their cases are considered.
Human rights campaigners have warned such schemes may be illegal and are unlikely to deter unsuccessful applicants from making renewed attempts to reach Britain.
Despite being ready to provide hundreds of millions of pounds to any country willing to host a processing centre, ministers have struggled to find any takers. Albania abruptly pulled out of negotiations last year when it was named as one of those countries in discussions with London.
Media reports based on Whitehall briefing suggested that Home Secretary Priti Patel and Foreign Secretary Liz Truss have since opened discussions with Ghana and Rwanda, both Commonwealth countries well-established links to Britain.
But Ghanaian diplomats in London have flatly denied any proposal for hosting UK asylum seekers was under consideration and insisted that the country has not held any talks with London.
In a statement, the Ghanaian High Commission told i: “The Government of Ghana have not held any discussions with the UK government concerning the establishment of a processing centre for migrants attempting to reach Britain.
“The Government of Ghana is not considering any proposal concerning migrants crossing into Britain as same has not been presented for consideration.”
Downing Street refused to be drawn on any discussions for outsourcing asylum claims, saying it was “not helpful” to disclose ongoing negotiations.
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “It’s obviously not helpful to talk about ongoing discussions we have with individual countries. This is a global challenge, it’s right we talk to international partners about how we fix the broken asylum system but I’m not going to get into the detail of those discussions.”
The Rwandan High Commission did not respond to a request to comment.
The country was reported last year to have started similar talks with Denmark.
Rwanda has previously denied that it agreed a scheme with Israel to receive some 4,000 African deportees under a “voluntary departure” scheme operated between 2014 and 2017.