Rwanda-style asylum plan was ‘nuclear option’ for Blair in 2003, records reveal

Report set out ‘radical measures’ to reduce numbers arriving, including setting up holding camps on Scottish island of Mull

Sending asylum seekers to holding camps on the Scottish island of Mull and removing them to “safe havens” in third-party countries such as Turkey, South Africa and Kenya, was among the “nuclear options” considered by Tony Blair’s government, documents reveal.

Twenty years before the Conservative government’s Rwanda plan, “big bang” solutions were discussed after Blair expressed frustration that “ever tougher controls” in northern France had failed, and demanded “we must search out even more radical measures” to tackle the growing number of asylum claims, which had reached 8,800 in October 2002.