Cooper on processing asylum claims abroad: ‘We will always look at what works’

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said “we will always look at what works” when asked if she was any closer to saying that asylum claims should be processed abroad.

She was asked the question on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme after it was put to her that other countries could be considering plans to process asylum claims abroad.

Ms Cooper said: “Well, we have said, and I think I’ve said this in conversations with you before as well, Nick, that we will always look at what works.

“The interesting thing about what a lot of countries are talking about and what a lot of the European countries are looking at at the moment is what they call broader procedures and fast-track decisions around particularly people who are arriving from predominantly safe countries.

“We do want to pursue that so that we have new fast-track arrangements in place. If somebody is arriving from a safe country, then actually you should be able to turn around those asylum decisions, turn around returns very swiftly. That does involve new processes.”

She added: “What Italy is looking at with Albania is being able to take those fast-track decisions. So it is just for predominantly safe countries, in Albania, now they have been working to make sure that they are compliant with international law, and they do have the UNHCR overseeing the work that they are doing.

“So this is very different from the really chaotic Rwanda scheme, where, you know, the government, previous government, the Conservatives, spent £700 million in the two and a half years it was running in order to send four volunteers to Rwanda.”

Ms Cooper also said she feels stronger action is needed to tackle anyone working illegally in the UK and added that immigration enforcement visits have increased by about 20% over the summer and enforced returns have increased nearly 20% since the election compared with the previous year.