{"id":837798,"date":"2026-10-15T21:40:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-16T01:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/?p=837798"},"modified":"2026-10-15T21:29:54","modified_gmt":"2026-10-16T01:29:54","slug":"uk-threatens-eritrea-visa-ban-migrant-returns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/837798","title":{"rendered":"UK threatens Eritrea with full visa ban unless it takes back more migrants"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The Home Office building at 2 Marsham Street, London, September 3, 2010 (Steph Gray, Wikimedia Commons via Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0) [file photo]<\/em><\/p>\n

Britain’s Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has warned that she will block all UK visas for Eritreans if Asmara does not take back more of its nationals.<\/p>\n

The Home Office published the ultimatum on Thursday. It said Eritrea must quickly agree to accept people who have no right to stay in Britain.<\/p>\n

From Thursday, the Home Office is stripping Eritrea of preferential fast-track visa processing for VIPs and government officials. Eritrean diplomats will also need Foreign Office permission to travel more than 60 kilometers beyond London, a mirror of limits placed on British officials in Asmara, the statement said.<\/p>\n

Mahmood said Eritrea has had every chance to accept the return of criminals and people with no right to be in the UK, and unlike other countries it has refused. “Take back your nationals or face a complete ban on your citizens entering the UK,” she said. The warning follows Eritrea’s withdrawal of returns cooperation earlier this year, according to the Home Office.<\/p>\n

Eritreans were the most common nationality arriving by small boat in the year ending June 2026, the government said. Returns deals matter for removing failed asylum seekers and foreign offenders. The Home Office said Angola, Namibia and the Democratic Republic of Congo all improved cooperation after similar pressure, and that restrictions on the DRC were later lifted after returns flights resumed.<\/p>\n

Martin Plaut, who writes on the Horn of Africa, posted the core of the threat on X. He wrote that Mahmood has threatened to ban all Eritreans from entering Britain if Eritrea does not accept more returns of small-boat migrants and criminals. His post pointed readers to UK coverage of the ultimatum and put the story in front of Horn audiences who already follow the Ethiopia-Eritrea military crisis.<\/p>\n

BBC Amharic also reported the UK move on Thursday. It said Mahmood had warned that Eritreans would be barred from entering the UK if the Eritrean government did not accept migrants who arrived by small boat and migrants who had committed crimes. At the time of its report, BBC Amharic said, the Eritrean embassy in London had not responded to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

The Home Office says it tried for months to settle the dispute privately and that Eritrea refused to engage constructively. Britain is also speeding returns to Egypt under a new deal. The statement says it could cut wait times for Egyptian removals from around 30 weeks to about three weeks.<\/p>\n

The Eritrean embassy in London rejected the Home Secretary’s claim that Eritrea had “abruptly” withdrawn returns cooperation in a statement on Thursday. The embassy sent the statement to Mereja, and it was also posted by Shabait, the website and X account (@shabait) of Eritrea’s Ministry of Information. The embassy said Eritrea “does not accept the forced return of its Citizens” and had told British officials so. It said Eritrea suspended escorted returns after UK authorities failed to disclose that some returnees were convicted criminals still serving prison terms. Mereja could not independently verify that claim. The embassy called the visa measures “nothing more than a perfunctory political gimmick” and said the UK “has not issued a single visa to an Eritrean official since 2023.” The Home Office denied that visa claim, BBC News reported. A Home Office spokesperson said the Eritrean commentary “misrepresents the UK’s position,” and the department said it granted an exemption from immigration control for an Eritrean official in August 2026.<\/p>\n

Sources:<\/strong><\/p>\n