The UK home secretary, Priti Patel, last week promised “the biggest overhaul of the UK’s asylum system in decades”, boasting of a “step change in our approach as we toughen our stance to deter illegal entry”.
The proposals include a consultation on changing the law to “keep the option open, if required in the future, to develop the capacity for offshore asylum processing”. Gibraltar and the Isle of Man have been suggested as suitable island locations, following controversy last year when it emerged that the Home Office were considering processing asylum seekers on Ascension Island and St Helena – some of the most remote islands in the world.
The idea was dismissed at the time by the shadow home secretary, Nick Thomas-Symonds, as “inhumane, completely impractical and wildly expensive”.
