PRITI PATEL has been urged to ditch “cowardly, barbaric and farcical” plans to open an offshore centre for asylum-seekers in Africa.

The Home Secretary has reportedly opened talks with Denmark to create a shared processing centre in the central African country of Rwanda. 

Ms Patel is due to introduce a provision in the Nationality and Borders Bill next week to enable asylum-seekers to be sent abroad for processing for the first time. Denmark passed similar laws earlier this month. 

But the plans, revealed by the Times, have been met with fierce opposition from politicians and rights groups, with Labour vowing to fight the “unconscionable” proposals. 

The UN refugee agency said it is “extremely concerned” about the reports and urged Britain against externalising its asylum responsibilities to Rwanda or other countries. 

UNHCR UK spokesman Matthew Saltmarsh said: “As we have seen in several contexts, externalisation often results in the forced transfers of people to other countries with inadequate protection safeguards and resources, and therefore risks breaching international refugee and human rights obligations. 

“It is the international community which must show solidarity in supporting Rwanda and the refugees it already hosts, and not the other way around.”

Campaigners have also said the plans are “unworkable.” Neither Denmark nor Britain have entered any formal agreement with a third country, while Tory ministers have failed to strike a deal with European countries to accept asylum-seekers. 

Earlier this year Danish ministers visited Rwanda to sign a memorandum to stem migration. But Rwanda has said that offshoring Denmark’s asylum-processing system was not part of the agreement. 

Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants campaigns director Minnie Rahman condemned Britain’s attempt to club together with another wealthy nation to offshore their asylum responsibilities as “despicable.” 

Highlighting the “horrendous” treatment of refugees recently held in army barracks, Ms Rahman warned the plans seek to “place human rights abuses in our asylum system even further out of sight and out of mind.”

“We must resist these farcical proposals, but we should also pay attention to the cruelty and neglect asylum-seekers already experience here,” she said. 

Refugee Action chief executive Tim Naor Hilton condemned the “cash-for-people plan” as a “cowardly, barbaric and inhumane way to treat refugees fleeing war and persecution.”

Campaigners also warned against adopting an Australia-style system, in which refugees and migrants are sent to detention camps in Nauru and Papua New Guinea rife with human rights violations. 

“The Australian experiment is living proof that offshore detention leads to catastrophic, tragic outcomes, including high levels of self-harm and mental illness, including amongst children searching for safety,” said Refugee Council CEO Enver Solomon. 

“This is an nasty, ill-thought-out policy,” he added. Shadow home secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds also hit out at the plans describing them as a “smokescreen” to distract from Tory failures. 

While Labour MP Bell Ribeiro Addy said: "These plans are impractical and inhumane. We should be doing all we can to help people rebuild their lives as part of our communities, not subjecting them to further upheaval and trauma."

A Home Office spokesperson said it would not rule out any option “that could help reduce the illegal migration and relieve the pressure on the broken asylum system.”