Home Office drops offshore asylum centre plans

The government has quietly dropped plans to process asylum
applications abroad, it has emerged, writes Chloe
Stothart.

The plans, which were strongly criticised by the House of Lords
last April, were dropped because of a lack of support from other
European Union states.

The u-turn emerged in a parliamentary written answer from
immigration minister Tony McNulty.

He said: “The government have no plans to introduce
offshore processing of asylum applications.”

The government proposed the idea of offshore processing of
applications in 2003.

A spokesperson for Amnesty International said: “We have
condemned offshore processing centres from the start as a way of
rich nations passing the obligation to care for asylum seekers to
poor countries.”