Home Minister Priti Patel has led to the of sending thousands of UK asylum seekers to a volcanic island in the Atlantic, which is 4000 miles away from Britain. She has asked the officials to look into the idea of sending the asylum seekers to Ascension Island, an isolated volcanic British territory, at the center of St Helena, which is part of the same island group but 800 miles away.
But the plan moving asylum seekers to isolated volcanic outcrops seems to have been dropped by Ms. Patel. The Foreign Office discussed the arrangement and gave an evaluation of the practically sending asylum seekers to the far isolated areas.
Channel crossing makes up a small portion of more than 34,000 individuals who registered shelter claims in the UK in the year to June, however unofficial estimates suggest the numbers using the path have been increased.
By the end of August, around 5,000 people had shown up in dinghies, which is more than double the 1,890 found in the entire of 2019. The matter has become a fighting issue for conservative politicians, especially Brexit party leader Nigel Farage.
A source of Home Offices states, “The UK has a long and proud history of offering refuge to those who need protection. Tens of thousands of people have rebuilt their lives in the UK and we will continue to provide safe and legal routes in the future. As ministers have said, we are developing plans to reform policies and laws around illegal migration and asylum to ensure we can protect those who need it while preventing abuse of the system and the criminality associated with it.”
Nick Thomas Symonds, the shadow home secretary states, “This ludicrous idea is inhumane, completely impractical and wildly expensive. So it seems entirely plausible this Tory government came up with it.”
Ascension Island, an island with a population of under 1,000, is home to a Royal Air Force station and was used widely as a staging point by the British military during the Falklands conflict in 1982. St Helena is also one of the most isolated islands in the world, lying 1,210 miles off the west shore of Africa. It is a part of the British Overseas Territory of St Helena, Ascension, and Tristan da Cunha.
