Ghana denies involvement in UK plans to process asylum seekers crossing Channel

Ghana’s ministry of foreign affairs denied being involved in talks with the UK about potentially processing asylum seekers.

The Times reported that plans are being drawn up to send people to countries such as Ghana and Rwanda for processing and resettlement.

But the Ghanaian government said: “The ministry of foreign affairs and regional integration wishes to state categorically that Ghana has not engaged with the UK on any such plan and does not intend to consider any such operation in the future.”

Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said: “Once again we find out that the Government has been making things up for the sake of headlines. Clearly, this was a desperate attempt to distract people from the Prime Minister’s mess, but this kind of behaviour from ministers is an embarrassment to our country and disrespectful to Ghana.”

She said: “Be it operation Big Dog or Red Meat or whatever schoolboy name they have for it now, it’s just ridiculous. Time and again the Home Office has been told that offshore processing is incredibly costly, impractical and damaging and it’s clear none of the countries they have approached have agreed. Yet instead of doing the serious hard work to tackle criminal gangs and prevent dangerous small boat crossings they just make things up to get headlines.”

More than 770 people have made the dangerous journey across the Channel in small boats so far this year, following a record-breaking year in 2021 when at least 28,000 arrived in the UK.