The British government is looking for alternatives to deporting illegal immigrants to other countries, leaked documents have revealed, after several African countries expressed their rejection of the measure.
According to the British newspaper “The Times”, the leaked documents revealed that Morocco, Tunisia, Namibia, and Gambia refused to enter into technical discussions about this measure.
The documents also showed that the British government had entered into talks with a number of other countries, including Armenia, Ivory Coast, Costa Rica, and Botswana, to replicate the scheme to deport migrants to third countries.
According to the newspaper, several South American countries, including Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Brazil, and Colombia, have been contacted to implement what the British government described as a “deal to process asylum applications in a third country.”
A list of African countries, including Cape Verde, Senegal, Tanzania, Togo, Angola, and Sierra Leone, has been placed on a reserve list.
In November 2023, Britain’s High Court unanimously ruled the deportation plan for asylum seekers illegal, stressing that it could threaten to return asylum seekers to their countries where they could face risks, in contravention of the European Convention on Human Rights, which criminalizes torture and inhuman treatment.
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