Source: Telegraph
Home Secretary strips diplomats of fast-track entry and threatens full ban on citizens
Shabana Mahmood is to impose Trump-style visa sanctions on Eritrea unless it takes back its criminals and illegal migrants, most of whom arrive on small boats.
The Home Secretary has stripped Eritrean VIPs and diplomats of their fast-track visa access to the UK after it reneged on an agreement to take back migrants refused asylum or convicted of crimes in the UK.
She warned on Wednesday that she would block visas for all Eritreans if the country did not rapidly agree to the return of its nationals with no right to be in the UK.
It follows similar visa sanctions that Ms Mahmood threatened last Christmas against the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Namibia and Angola. These forced them into an about-turn where they agreed within three months to take back thousands of criminals and illegal migrants.
Just 106 failed asylum seekers from Eritrea have been deported out of 2,626 whose claims were rejected in the past four years, equivalent to fewer than 4 per cent. Nearly 6,000 Eritreans have reached the UK across the Channel in the year to June, the highest number of any nationality.
Only last month Eritrean migrant Radiet Meles, 35, who entered the UK illegally, was convicted of raping a woman after the Home Office failed to deport him from the UK following an earlier sex offence.
Despite serving a five-year prison sentence for the attempted rape of an unconscious woman at a house party in Newport, South Wales, Meles was neither deported nor monitored upon his release. The registered sex offender was instead permitted to return to Newport, where he went on to attack another woman.
Meles arrived in the UK clandestinely in 2015, concealed inside a lorry that passed through the Channel tunnel.
Ms Mahmood told The Telegraph: “Eritrea has had every chance to accept the return of criminals and those with no right to be in the UK. Unlike other countries, it has refused.
“My message to the Eritrean government is simple: take back your nationals or face a complete ban on your citizens entering the UK. I will not hesitate to impose further measures on other countries refusing to cooperate.”
Her move comes after months of diplomatic talks to resolve the row privately with the Eritrean government. Sources said it had refused to engage constructively.
As a result, Ms Mahmood has decided to impose the visa restrictions and bar all Eritrean diplomats currently in the UK from travelling 37 miles beyond London without permission from the Foreign Office.
The sanctions mirror visa bans and restrictions that Donald Trump, the US president, has placed on nearly 40 countries.
The UK is seeking to restore a returns agreement which had been in place between 2024 and March 2026 until officials said Eritrea “abruptly” ended co-operation earlier this year.
In the year ending June 2026, 6,952 Eritrean asylum seekers arrived in the UK, the second-highest number of any nationality. This included 5,875 by small boats, the largest of any nationality grouping. Eritreans have a high asylum approval rate of 83.1 per cent.
The DRC, Namibia and Angola agreed to the return of their citizens in February after Ms Mahmood threatened to ban visas for the countries’ ministers, diplomats and tourists.
Their about-turn meant up to 4,000 convicted criminals, including murderers, rapists and illegal migrants, from the three countries could be deported to the African states.
After the success of the sanction threats, Ms Mahmood warned other countries that they faced similar visa restrictions if they continued to refuse to take back their criminals, illegal migrants and rejected asylum seekers.
India, Pakistan, Nigeria, Bangladesh, Somalia, Egypt and Gabon have been identified as resistant to taking back illegal migrants and could face sanctions.
