Plans to send refused asylum seekers to “return hubs” in third countries have been announced by Keir Starmer on a trip to Albania during which the Balkan country ruled out participating in the scheme.

The prime minister flew to Tirana to confirm the UK was seeking to send people whose asylum claims had been turned down to foreign detention centres once they had exhausted all avenues of appeal.

The proposals risked being overshadowed by remarks from the Albanian prime minister, Edi Rama, who used a joint press conference with Starmer to highlight his country’s refusal to engage in such negotiations while it was trying to set up a similar scheme with Italy.

On Wednesday night, the Times reported that Albania was one of the UK’s preferred options for a hub.

The Conservatives claimed Starmer’s trip and policy announcement had not gone to plan and had been exposed by Rama’s remarks.

Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, said: “This trip is an embarrassment. Starmer jetted off and now the Albanian prime minister has made clear that there will be no UK return hubs in Albania. So, what was the point of this entire visit?”

British officials had hoped to establish return hubs in the western Balkans, with Albania previously seen as a potential partner.

Starmer told GB News that officials had begun formal negotiations with potential host countries but he refused to reveal which ones.

“What now we want to do and are having discussions of, talks of, is return hubs, which is where someone has been through the system in the UK, they need to be returned and we have to make sure they’re returned effectively, and we’ll do that, if we can, through return hubs,” he said.

If established, the return hubs will be used to process asylum seekers who have lost their paperwork or who are considered to be trying to frustrate their deportation.

Downing Street confirmed the plan but gave few other details. Starmer’s official spokesperson said: “We are having formal discussions with partners across Europe on the prospects of collaborating on return hubs. Return hubs are targeted at failed asylum seekers who have exhausted all legal routes to remain in the UK but are currently here, costing millions of taxpayers.”

He said the aim was to focus on asylum seekers whose legal routes had ended but were using “stalling tactics”, which he said included saying they had lost their documentation, or who were starting a family.

Removing people to their home countries was difficult under such circumstances, the spokesperson said, but there were fewer legal obstacles to taking them to a third country where the processing could continue.

Rama said he would not try to establish a deal with the UK because he was already engaged in a similar process with Italy. “We have been asked by several countries if we were open to it and we said no, because we are loyal to the marriage with Italy and the rest is just love,” Rama said.

Italy has two detention centres in Albania to process refused asylum seekers, with 40 people having been sent to the centres so far despite a number of legal challenges.

Starmer’s spokesperson rejected the idea that Rama’s remarks had been a surprise, saying the PM and his officials knew beforehand that Albania had no interest in hosting a UK return hub.

Asked if it was peculiar to make such an announcement in Albania, when the country was not part of the plans, he rejected this: “The prime minister was making a visit in relation to illegal migration. I think it is entirely relevant.”

Enver Solomon, the chief executive of the Refugee Council, said: “Threatening to detain people in countries they’ve never set foot in causes fear and panic, leading to low rates of compliance. The government’s approach to returns must be based on evidence if it’s going to work and it is clear that the most effective returns systems are not punitive but orderly and humane.”

This week the number of people crossing the Channel in small boats passed 12,000 for the year to date, putting 2025 on course to be a record year for such crossings.

In March, the EU announced it had approved of member states pursuing the approach of return hubs. The Netherlands is in negotiations with Uganda about such a possibility.

The UN refugee agency has also endorsed the idea of return hubs, which is significant given that the UN intervened against the Conservative government’s Rwanda scheme, which led to it being ruled unlawful.