THE Government abandoned plans yesterday to process asylum applications abroad. It was the second reversal of refugee policy in a week.

David Blunkett said when he was Home Secretary that offshore holding centres would process claims without people travelling to countries where they sought asylum. He claimed more than two years ago to have won “substantial support” from other EU states for the transit processing centres.

But Tony McNulty, the Immigration Minister, told MPs yesterday that the proposal was now dead. Asked what plans there were to bring forward proposals to hear asylum applications offshore, Mr McNulty said: “The Government has no plans to introduce offshore processing of asylum applications.”

Mark Oaten, the Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman, said last night: “This was a ridiculous idea. David Blunkett’s idea of replacing our asylum system with a few refugee camps in the developing world was wrong in principle as well as being totally impractical.”

Last week The Times disclosed that proposals for a network of accommodation centres in rural England to hold 3,000 asylum-seekers had also been abandoned by Mr McNulty.

Mr Blunkett put forward his plan for “transit processing centres” in February 2003. A few months later Beverley Hughes, then the Immigration Minister, told MPs that there had been sufficient interest from other countries for the scheme to be a viable proposition. Ms Hughes, now the Minister for Children, said that the Government hoped “there might be some pilot schemes under way before the end of the year”.

In spite of Ms Hughes’s hopes, not one transit processing centre got off the ground. The scheme, which emerged from Tony Blair’s demand for action to stem the flow of asylum-seekers to Britain, was met with lukewarm support from other EU states and was strongly opposed by Amnesty International. The plan was put forward only weeks after figures disclosed that in 2002 a record 103,800 asylum applicants and their dependents sought refugee status.

Yesterday the Home Office said that only Italy had been interested when the original proposal was put forward at an EU summit in Greece.

Mr Blunkett insisted at the time that new plans for dealing with asylum-seekers were needed because the EU could not carry on pursuing old solutions to the asylum problem, which did not work.

He said that the transit zones would undercut the gangs which charged thousands of pounds to help asylum-seekers. “They would also process claims without people travelling to the countries in which they want to seek asylum. They would be safe and decently treated while their claims were being looked at.”

Labour and Liberal Democrats MPs thought the proposal was an attempt by the Government to ensure that asylum-seekers would be out of sight and out of mind, and out of the tabloid press in particular.

A Home Office spokesman said last night: “We put forward these proposals for improving international migration management and at subsequent EU meetings there was support for our assessment but no consensus on our suggested approach for dealing with it. We did not pursue the proposal but they served as a stimulus for further debate on providing protection to asylum-seekers in different parts of the world.”

BLUNKETT'S PLEDGES

2002 Promises network of four asylum accommodation centres

2005 Plans dropped

June 2001 Repeats Jack Straw’s target of removing 30,000 failed asylum-seekers a year by Spring 2003

November 2001 Plans are dropped because they are “unattainable”. 12,430 failed applicants removed in 2004

February 2003 Proposes transit processing centres

June 2005 Formally abandoned

2001 Expects to have 4000 detention places for failed asylum-seekers and illegal immigrants by spring of 2003

June 2005 2,725 places

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