Sir Keir Starmer faced a diplomatic setback during his first visit to Albania as Prime Minister Edi Rama rejected UK proposals to establish migrant “return hubs” in the country.

The announcement came just hours after Sir Keir confirmed the offshoring plan for failed asylum seekers who have exhausted all appeals.

At a joint press conference in Tirana, Rama firmly rejected the proposal, stating: “I have been very clear since day one when we started this process with Italy that this was a one-off with Italy because of our very close relation but also because of the geographical situation, which makes a lot of sense.”

The Albanian leader emphasised his loyalty to the “marriage with Italy”, revealing that several countries had already approached Albania with similar requests.

Unlike the Rwanda scheme, which was scrapped by Labour as “unethical, unworkable and extortionate”, these return hubs would process migrants who have exhausted all options to remain in the UK before deportation to their home countries.

Despite the Albanian setback, the UK Government is exploring discussions with other Western Balkan nations, including Serbia, North Macedonia and Montenegro at the upcoming European Political Community summit.

The UK will also host a Western Balkans summit in London in autumn 2025.

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