GB News has published an article publicising a report form the right-wing think tank Policy Exchange calling for refugees to be processed in offshore detention centres
Broadcaster GB News has been promoting a right wing policy on refugees in the UK. The broadcaster, which has previously been accused of spreading Covid misinformation, published an article on February 16 publicising a report from the right wing think tank Policy Exchange.
That report calls for the introduction of offshore asylum processing for refugees. This would see refugees that arrive in the UK in small boats crossing the Channel to be detained outside mainland Britain, in places such as Cyprus or Ascension Island, where their asylum claims can be processed. Ascension Island – described by the report as the ‘most obviously suitable’ location for offshore detention is a remote island in the Atlantic Ocean, more than 4,000 miles from the UK.
The report goes on to suggest that no refugee who travels across the Channel from France to the UK should be granted asylum, on the grounds that they would have entered via a “safe country”. Instead, a “third state” would be expected to house refugees deported from the UK and its waters.
The report reads, “No one, even a genuine refugee, who chooses to arrive or attempt to arrive unlawfully in the UK by small boat from a safe country like France will ever be granted a right to settle in the UK.“
The government’s Nationality and Borders Bill currently going through parliament would also seek to introduce offshore asylum processing.
The GB News article contained no criticism of the proposals from Policy Exchange. This is despite offshore processing of asylum seekers being extremely controversial.
Establishing such a system has been assessed to cost around £8bn per year – and civil society and opposition politicians have condemned moves towards it.
Amnesty International has described offshore detention as “entirely immoral and inhumane”. Similarly, the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants have said that ‘offshore detention centres are places of cruelty and neglect’, adding that ‘they should have absolutely no place in our asylum system.’ And last year, seven Labour MPs signed a statement condemning this approach among other elements of the Nationality and Borders Bill. The MPs stated offshore processing of asylum applications would lead to “serious human rights abuses”.
Offshore detention is most notably used by the Australian government. The Refugee Council of Australia has documented major issues in the Australian system, which has included the deaths of 13 people and numerous allegations of abuse.
Chris Jarvis is head of strategy and development at Left Foot Forward
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