Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an assessment of the potential implications for her policies of the Italian Government decision to use naval ships to transport migrants to Albania.

The Italian navy has competence for the transfer of migrants rescued in international waters to the centres in Albania run by the Italian government.

As part of this Government’s expansion of international cooperation in the fight against Organised Immigration Crime, we constantly monitor the impact of the methods, techniques and technology that other partner nations and agencies are employing in that fight.

The UK government is monitoring the Italian government implementation of their deal with Albania as an innovative approach to manage migration flows.