![\"Keir](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Screenshot-2025-05-19-at-15.30.22-e1747665098692-800x450.png\")
<\/p>\nHe said \u201ctotally shameful\u201d ideas about \u201cdumping immigrants\u201d have been normalised since Brexit<\/p>\n
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The Socialist prime minister of Albania Edi Rama has said the UK\u2019s plan to send refused asylum seekers to \u201creturn hubs\u201d in third countries shows the UK is in a \u201cin a very dark place\u201d.<\/strong><\/p>\n Rama, who won his fourth term as prime minister last month, said the plan was an example of \u201ctotally unacceptable, totally ridiculous, totally shameful\u201d ideas that have become normalised since Brexit.<\/p>\n He told the Guardian: \u201cIt\u2019s one of those things that 10 years ago would simply not have not been imaginable \u2026 that Britain would look for places to dump immigrants.<\/p>\n \u201cThe fact that today it\u2019s not just imaginable, it\u2019s happening, is not because of Keir Starmer or [Rishi] Sunak doing something outrageous; it\u2019s because of the country being in a very dark place.\u201d<\/p>\n He added: \u201cEighty per cent of the things that are said, or are written, or are accepted as a normal part of the discourse in today\u2019s Britain are things that [before Brexit] would have been totally unacceptable, totally ridiculous, totally shameful.\u201d<\/p>\n Keir Starmer announced the \u201creturn hubs\u201d policy while on a visit to meet Rama, but Rama made it clear that Albania is not part of the programme.<\/p>\n Rama said: \u201cI have been clear about this since Boris Johnson asked me and Rishi asked me \u2026 I\u2019ve always said no.\u201d<\/p>\n Albania does, however, have a similar \u201creturn hubs\u201d scheme for asylum seekers who have been refused asylum in Italy.\u00a0<\/p>\n He said that he agreed to this scheme as since Albania\u2019s brutal Stalinist regime collapsed in 1991, Italy had stood by his country.<\/p>\n He explained: \u201c[We] have a weak spot for Italy, so when Italy asks us for something we say yes, full stop.\u201d<\/p>\n Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward<\/strong><\/p>\n
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