Nigeria is one of five additional African nations reportedly in “advanced talks” with the UK government about a deal akin to the one with Rwanda.
The UK-Rwanda agreement aims to expel unauthorized immigrants from the UK so that their asylum applications can be processed outside of Europe.
Now, Morocco, Nigeria, Namibia, Niger, and Ghana are all in discussions with the UK government about receiving migrants rejected for asylum from the UK, The Times reports.
This comes after 25 boats were intercepted by Border Force and the Royal Navy on Monday and escorted into Dover and Dungeness in the morning, before hundreds more people were brought ashore into the evening amid a large number of migrants crossing the Channel to the UK.
According to reports, as many as 1,000 people may have arrived yesterday, after three days without crossings.
August is set to become a record month for the year with around 6,000 migrants having crossed the Channel so far, The Telegraph reports.
The highest ever total in a month is 6,878 in November. And yesterday the yearly total reached 21,000. The total did not pass 20,000 until November in 2021.
It was also revealed that the Foreign Office has been taking up the task of establishing a list of countries interested in agreeing on a Rwanda-style deal.
An initial list of 20 countries was quickly reduced when ambassadors warned that seeking such agreements would damage relations.
Albania, North Macedonia, and Moldova were on the initial list but were removed following the negative media coverage.
