During their visit to Rome, Sir Keir and Mr Hewitt will tour Italy’s National Coordination Centre for Migration to see how the country responds to illegal migration and discuss future cooperation.
Over the weekend, Sir Keir said he was “interested” in Italy’s migration deal with Albania, under which migrants rescued at sea will be sent to the Balkan country while their asylum claims are processed.
Asked whether he would consider pursuing a similar agreement, Sir Keir said: “Let’s see. It’s in the early days, I’m interested in how that works, I think everybody else is.”
Reception centres in Albania are due to open later this year, after some delays.
After winning power, Labour scrapped the previous Conservative government’s plan to send some asylum seekers to Rwanda from the UK.
Under the Italian agreement, migrants will still be able to apply for asylum in Italy while they are in Albania. If refused, they will face deportation.
This differs from the now-abandoned Rwanda scheme, where asylum seekers would not have been allowed to return to the UK if their claim was accepted and would instead have been able to stay in Rwanda.
A Conservative Party spokesman said: “Keir Starmer has absolutely no plan to stop the boats, and that’s why he’s now resorting to trying to copy others.”
He said Labour had “scrapped this country’s deterrent to illegal immigration and signalled to the vile people smuggling gangs they were not willing to take the serious action needed to stop the boats”.
