Government considering sending failed asylum seekers to overseas ‘migrant hubs’

Published

1 day ago

March 22, 2025

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The government is considering sending failed asylum seekers, including those arriving on small boats, to overseas ‘migrant hubs’, Sky News understands.

A Home Office source has told political correspondent Amanda Akass that the government is in the “very early stages” of discussions around the idea, and is keen to learn about what Italy has been doing in Albania.

The right-wing Italian government has built two facilities in the Balkan country aiming to hold migrants there while processing their asylum requests.

Government sources told The Times newspaper that UK ministers are planning to approach countries in the western Balkans including Albania, Serbia, Bosnia and North Macedonia.

It comes as a number of migrants were pictured arriving in Dover, Kent, on Saturday.

On Friday, 246 people made the perilous journey across the Channel from France in five boats – bringing the provisional total for the year so far to 5,271.

On Thursday, 341 people crossed in six boats.

This is the earliest point in the year that crossings have reached the 5,000 mark since data on Channel crossings was first reported in 2018.

Labour’s strategy is expected to differ substantially from the previous Tory government’s Rwanda plan, which aimed to deport all migrants who arrived in the UK illegally, regardless of whether or not their asylum claims would be successful.

The Supreme Court ruled in 2023 that Rwanda was considered an “unsafe” country.

Amanda Akass said the Home Office source “won’t say which countries are being considered because they don’t want to pre-empt any discussions which haven’t even officially begun yet”.

“But I am told that the government is closely looking at the example of Italy, which has a treaty with Albania and has built two detention centres in Albania to house asylum seekers while their claims are being processed there.”

Akass noted there have been legal challenges to that deal, adding: “But it looks like the government are watching that to see what the outcome may be.”

Meanwhile, the European Union last week announced that it was proposing to allow member states to set up return hubs.

The plan has been endorsed by the UN’s International Organisation for Migration, which offered to “advise and assist states in the design and operationalisation of innovative return policy that is both effective and in line with European and international law”.

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The UK signed a “road-map” agreement with France earlier this month aimed at bolstering co-operation to tackle people smuggling across the Channel.

The government’s new Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill also continues through parliament with plans to introduce new criminal offences and hand counter terror-style powers to police and enforcement agencies to crack down on people smuggling gangs.

Chris Philp, shadow home secretary, said: “This is Labour admitting they made a catastrophic mistake in cancelling the Rwanda scheme before it even started.

“But the tragedy is it will take some time before this can be done and, in the meantime, tens of thousands of illegal migrants will have poured into the country, costing UK taxpayers billions and making a mockery of our border security.

“The fact they are now looking at offshore processing shows they were wrong to cancel Rwanda before it even started and shows their attempts to ‘smash the gangs’ have failed.

“In fact, illegal immigrants crossing the channel are up 28% since the election and this year has been the worst ever. Labour has lost control of our borders. They should urgently start the Rwanda removals scheme.”

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said the number of people crossing the Channel was “really worrying”.

He said: “I’m actually glad that the government scrapped the Rwanda scheme because it wasn’t working as a deterrent.

“In fact, hardly anybody went, and it was costing huge amounts of money. If they’ve got a better scheme that will work, we’ll look at that.

“But they’ve also got to do quite a few other things. There’s too many hotels that are being used because people aren’t being processed quickly enough, and Liberal Democrats have argued for a long time that if you process people, you give them the right to work so they can actually contribute.

“That’s the way you could save a lot of money, and I think taxpayers would support that.”

The government has been contacted for further comment.

Politics

Sonic unveils high-yield algorithmic stablecoin, reigniting Terra-Luna ‘PTSD’

Published

6 hours ago

March 23, 2025

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Sonic unveils high-yield algorithmic stablecoin, reigniting Terra-Luna ‘PTSD’

The Sonic blockchain is working on the implementation of its yield-generating, algorithmic stablecoin despite fears over a potential collapse similar to the Terra-Luna meltdown that led to the industry’s longest crypto winter.

Algorithmic stablecoins employ code-based mechanisms to ensure their price stability, as opposed to fiat stablecoins pegged directly to the value of the underlying currency.

The Sonic blockchain is working on the implementation of an algorithmic stablecoin with up to 23% annual percentage rate (APR), according to Andre Cronje, co-founder of Sonic Labs and founder of Yearn.finance.

Cronje wrote in a March 22 X post:

“POC looks good. Yielding > 200% APR @ 10m tvl, around 23.5% APR @ 100m, steady at around 4.9% at 1bn+. Will scale up and get team for a full release.”

The announcement came a day after Cronje admitted to experiencing Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) related to algorithmic stablecoin due to previous cycles:

“Pretty sure our team cracked algo stable coins today, but previous cycle gave me so much PTSD not sure if we should implement.”

In May 2022, the $40 billion Terra ecosystem collapsed, erasing tens of billions of dollars of value in a matter of days. Terra’s algorithmic stablecoin, TerraUSD (UST), was yielding an over 20% annual percentage yield (APY) on Anchor Protocol.

As UST lost its dollar peg, crashing to a low of around $0.30, Terraform Labs co-founder Do Kwon took to X to share his rescue plan. At the same time, the value of sister token LUNA, once a top-10 crypto project by market capitalization, plunged over 98% to $0.84. For reference: LUNA was trading north of $120 in early April.

Sonic claims to be the world’s fastest Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) chain, with a “true” 720 milliseconds (ms) finality — the assurance that a transaction is irreversible, which happens after it is added to a block on the blockchain ledger.

Sonic has garnered attention in the crypto industry since its testnet achieved a 720 ms finality on Sept. 8, 2024.

Investors are still buying collapsed LUNA token years after Terra crash

The Terra (LUNA) token is down over 98% from its all-time high of 19.54 recorded on May 28, 2022, nearly three years ago, CoinMarketCap data shows.

Despite the collapse, the token saw over $21 million worth of trading volume over the past 24 hours, which shows that “people are still buying it even though it’s dead,” noted popular technical analyst Optimus KevTron.

The collapse of the algorithmic stablecoin issuer created shockwaves among both crypto investors and lawmakers.

To create more stability, the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) bill will prohibit the issuance of algorithmic stablecoins to avoid another collapse similar to the Terra ecosystem’s.

Magazine: ‘Hong Kong’s FTX’ victims win lawsuit, bankers bash stablecoins: Asia Express

Politics

Civil service to be ordered to cut more than £2bn from budget – as Reeves rules out tax rises in spring statement

Published

13 hours ago

March 23, 2025

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Civil service to be ordered to cut more than £2bn from budget - as Reeves rules out tax rises in spring statement

The civil service is to be told to cut more than £2bn from its budget as part of the government’s spending review.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves is expected to unveil spending cuts during the spring statement next week – and has reportedly ruled out tax rises.

The FDA union has said the government needs to be honest about the move, first reported by The Telegraph, and the “impact it will have on public services”.

Civil service departments will first have to reduce administrative budgets by 10%, which is expected to save £1.5bn a year by 2028-29.

The following year, the reduction should be 15%, the Cabinet Office will say – a saving of £2.2bn a year.

Administrative budgets include human resources, policy advice and office management, rather than frontline services.

The chancellor has also said she won’t be putting up taxes on Wednesday, telling The Sun On Sunday: “This is not a budget. We’re not going to be doing tax raising.”

Ms Reeves added: “We did have to put up some taxes on businesses and the wealthiest in the country in the budget [in the autumn].

“We will not be doing that in the spring statement next week.”

The chancellor has repeatedly insisted she won’t drop her fiscal rules which preclude borrowing to fund day-to-day spending.

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Civil service departments will receive instructions from the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Pat McFadden in the coming week, The Telegraph reported.

“To deliver our Plan for Change we will reshape the state so it is fit for the future. We cannot stick to business as usual,” a Cabinet Office source said.

“By cutting administrative costs we can target resources at frontline services – with more teachers in classrooms, extra hospital appointments and police back on the beat.”

The move comes after the government last week revealed welfare cuts it believes will save £5bn a year by the end of the decade.

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FDA general secretary Dave Penman said the union welcomed a move away from “crude headcount targets” but that the distinction between the back office and frontline is “artificial”.

“Elected governments are free to decide the size of the civil service they want, but cuts of this scale and speed will inevitably have an impact on what the civil service will be able to deliver for ministers and the country…

“The budgets being cut will, for many departments, involve the majority of their staff and the £1.5bn savings mentioned equates to nearly 10% of the salary bill for the entire civil service.”

Ministers need to set out what areas of work they are prepared to stop as part of spending plans, he said.

“The idea that cuts of this scale can be delivered by cutting HR and comms teams is for the birds. This plan will require ministers to be honest with the public and their civil servants about the impact this will have on public services.”

Mike Clancy, general secretary of the Prospect union, warned that “a cheaper civil service is not the same as a better civil service”.

“Prospect has consistently warned government against adopting arbitrary targets for civil service headcount cuts which are more about saving money than about genuine civil service reform.

“The government say they will not fall into this trap again. But this will require a proper assessment of what the civil service will and won’t do in future.”

Politics

Crypto security will always be a game of ‘cat and mouse’ — Wallet exec

Published

13 hours ago

March 23, 2025

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Crypto security will always be a game of ‘cat and mouse’ — Wallet exec

Cryptocurrency wallet providers are getting more sophisticated, but so are bad actors — which means the battle between security and threats is at a deadlock, says a hardware wallet firm executive.

“It will always be a cat and mouse game,” Ledger chief experience officer Ian Rogers told Cointelegraph when describing the constant race between crypto wallet firms adding new security features and hackers finding more advanced ways to access victims’ wallets.

Rogers said, unfortunately, the most straightforward scams work best because scammers rely on people making simple mistakes.

“People give their 24-word phrases to people every day, so as long as that happens, then they are going to go for the low-cost tax,” he said, adding:

“Anyone who asks for your 24 words is a criminal.”

Rogers highlighted a common crypto scam where victims get tricked by replies under “any post on Twitter about crypto,” with messages like “DM me, and I’ll help you.”

“You know that scammers are always asking you for your 24 words,” Rogers said. CertiK chief business officer Jason Jiang recently told Cointelegraph that being aware of phishing attacks on social media can drastically increase a user’s crypto security.

Sometimes, scammers hijack the accounts of well-known industry figures to post malicious links, making it even harder for users to spot the scam.

In September 2023, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin’s account was compromised, leading to a fake NFT giveaway that tricked followers into clicking — only to drain over $691,000 from their wallets.

Cryptocurrencies, Security, Ledger, Hacks — *Source:* *CertiK*

Rogers emphasized that this will always be the case, just as bad actors aren’t limited to crypto — scams like fake emails from the “Nigerian president” have been around for years.

“The cost of the attack is always commensurate with the size of the prize, right?” Rogers said. In 2024, crypto hacks jumped 15% from 2023, with over $3 billion stolen.

Meanwhile, pig butchering scams have emerged as one of the most pervasive threats to crypto investors, with losses on the Ethereum network costing the industry $5.5 billion across 200,000 identified cases in 2024.

Pig butchering is a type of phishing scheme that involves prolonged and complex manipulation tactics to trick investors into willingly sending their assets to fraudulent crypto addresses.

Magazine: Dummies guide to native rollups: L2s as secure as Ethereum itself