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| - The British government is grappling with how to deal with a recent surge in irregular migration across the Channel, but reports about possible solutions have caused an outcry. Among the proposals are said to be holding asylum seekers on a British overseas territory in the South Atlantic Ocean which is closer to Cape Town and Rio de Janeiro than London. Other purported suggestions reported in the British media involved mooring a 40-year-old ferry off the English coast to house up to 1,400 people in 141 cabins, or even sending migrants to decommissioned oil rigs in the North Sea. Opposition politicians and rights groups said the mooted ideas were "unconscionable" and "dismal" while academics warn they would be expensive and impractical. The government refused to specify what precisely is being discussed, but confirmed it is "developing plans to reform policies and laws around illegal migration and asylum". It follows a spike in migrants using small and dangerous boats to cross the Channel from France over the summer months. Interior minister Priti Patel has vowed to stop the journeys but record numbers of people navigated the 21-mile (33-kilometre) waterway last month, according to the BBC. UK officials say the coronavirus outbreak has contributed to the increase, with fewer trucks and ferries travelling between France and the UK reducing stowaway opportunities. Organised crime groups are capitalising on people's desperation to reach Britain, charging them thousands of pounds for a place on a hazardous inflatable vessel, police say. European police announced Wednesday they had busted one such network, arresting 12 suspected human smugglers in France, the Netherlands and the UK as part of a joint operation. The reports of the supposed government ideas for offshore asylum processing drew incredulity for their outlandishness. One mooted idea is the creation of a centre on the volcanic island chain of Ascension and Saint Helena, more than 4,000 miles from the UK. The Financial Times, which first reported the story, on Thursday said officials had also discussed the possibility of deploying boats with pumps generating waves in the Channel. The idea was to force small boats back into French waters. Another was to link vessels together to form a barrier blocking their path. The Times said the UK was exploring purchasing a disused ferry from Italy for £6 million ($8 million, 7 million euros), and had also even examined using decommissioned North Sea oil platforms. The Daily Mail reported the immigration centres could be built on the Isle of Wight, off the southern English coast, the Shetland Islands off northeast Scotland or the Isle of Man in the Irish Sea. Many drew comparisons to Australia, where would-be asylum seekers arriving by boat are held in offshore detention centres on Manus, Nauru and Christmas islands. The camps, condemned by the United Nations but backed by Australia's major parties, have seen hunger strikes, demonstrations and suicide attempts among detainees. One of the policy's main exponents, Australia's former prime minister Tony Abbott, has recently become a trade adviser to the UK government. Britain's interior ministry declined to comment on the potential plans and reports that architects of the Australian system were advising the government. Prime Minister Boris Johnson's spokesman said Thursday he did "not recognise" the steps outlined in some reports but confirmed it was looking at the immigration policies of "a whole host of other countries". "There is clearly an issue here which we need to address," he added. Labour party home affairs spokesman Nick Thomas-Symonds said the reported proposals were "a vile example of how degraded an environment" over immigration the ruling Conservatives had created. The government had "learned nothing" from the recent Windrush scandal, which saw a generation of Britons of Caribbean origin who moved to the UK legally in the 1950s and 1960s wrongly detained or deported for being illegal immigrants, he added. Amnesty UK's Steve Valdez-Symonds added the idea to "effectively exile people seeking asylum to far-flung and isolated places... defies consideration of the needs, rights and welfare of women, men and children". "It is a dismal reflection upon Home Office ministers that this idea... has been given any consideration at all," he said. Agnieszka Kubal, sociology lecturer at University College London, said the proposals would be costly and unviable. She also questioned if using overseas territories to house migrants would comply with legal obligations around asylum. "The UK would be within the letter of the law but would be breaking the spirit of the international law," she added. jj/phz/adp
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