RAF 'would refuse to fly Channel migrants to Ascension Island'

08 August 2023 , 08:04

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The RAF would refuse to take migrants to Ascension, it has been claimed

The RAF would refuse to fly Channel migrants to Ascension Island if ministers wanted to send asylum seekers there for processing, it was claimed today.

Ministers are once again plotting to use the remote South Atlantic isle 4,000 miles from Britain for holding migrants while their applications are considered. The plan first emerged three years ago and was quickly scrapped. But desperate Tories are examining using the volcanic outcrop as the backlog of asylum applications continues to grow.

While Whitehall sources have played down the chances of Ascension being used, an RAF insider has said the air force would not fly migrants there anyway. The British Overseas Territory, which is used as a staging post to supply and defend the Falkland Islands, has an RAF base and a population of fewer than 1,000.

Ascension Island is 4,000 miles from Britain (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

The only way currently to fly to Ascension is on RAF flights from Brize Norton, Oxon - the UK’s biggest military airfield. A government source warned: "The RAF will want nothing to do with it.”

Routine deportation flights arranged by the Home Office are operated by private charter planes because they are much cheaper than RAF aircraft. "The Home Office normally charters private planes because we are quite expensive,” an RAF source told The Times. “We also have other priorities, such as Ukraine.”

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The Home Office would need to lodge a formal request for military assistance, under the Military Aid to the Civil Authorities process. It lines up another potential row between the Home Office and Ministry of Defence.

The idea to use Ascension has been revived amid a legal row over the Government’s bid to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda. Judges are due to rule on whether moving migrants to the east African country is legal.

Home Office Minister Sarah Dines claimed "times change" when asked why the Ascension Island plan was being reconsidered after being rejected by even Boris Johnson's former government. "Well, times change, we look at all possibilities,” she told Sky News. "This crisis in the Channel is urgent, we need to look at all possibilities and that is what we are doing.

"We are determined to make sure there isn't the pull factor for illegal migrants to come to this country, basically to be abused by criminal organised gangs. These are international operations and they have got to stop.”

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Ben Glaze