After his Rwanda win… is Rishi Sunak now seeking a deal over illegal migrants with Albania?

Rishi Sunak will tomorrow discuss radical plans to process the asylum claims of migrants overseas.

He will travel to Rome tomorrow morning for a mini summit on illegal migration with Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni and her Albanian counterpart Edi Rama.

He will then give a speech on the subject at a political conference organised by Ms Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party. 

Mr Sunak agreed a landmark returns deal with Mr Rama last year, which has seen the number of Albanians crossing the Channel illegally drop by 90 per cent.

Tomorrow he is expected to discuss a new arrangement that will see Italy send illegal migrants to Albania to have their asylum claims processed. 

The so-called ‘offshoring’ arrangement has been temporarily blocked by Albania’s constitutional court.

But it could mean 36,000 migrants a year have their claims processed in Albania at two centres built and run by Italy. 

Downing Street was tight-lipped today about whether Mr Sunak is interested in pursuing a similar deal with Albania to run alongside the Government’s troubled Rwanda scheme.

A No10 spokesman said tomorrow’s summit would ‘focus on existing partnerships and the returns deal with Albania’.

But a source confirmed that the agreement between Italy and Albania will also be on the agenda.

Italy is on the front line of the EU’s migration crisis, with almost 130,000 arriving in the first nine months of this year. Under the deal, Italy will send up to 3,000 people a month to Albania for processing. 

Once their claims have been assessed, Italy will be responsible for either resettling them or deporting them.

The scheme is different from the UK’s partnership with Rwanda, under which migrants will have no option to apply for asylum here.

But some ministers believe an ‘offshoring’ deal would be easier to get past the courts, particularly with a country like Albania where there is already a returns agreement.

A government source said earlier today the scheme underlined the growing interest of other European countries in trying to deter illegal migrants. Germany, Denmark and Austria are among the other states investigating Rwanda-style deals.

Tomorrow’s talks also underline the blossoming political partnership between Mr Sunak and Ms Meloni. The two leaders will hold a one-to-one session before being joined by Mr Rama for a wider discussion.

Mr Sunak will then give a speech on tackling illegal migration at Ms Meloni’s annual political festival, which she founded in 1998.

A Whitehall source said Mr Sunak ‘gets on well’ with Ms Meloni, who came to power at the same time and also cites Margaret Thatcher as an influence.