THE Home Office has been approached for urgent talks by the Scottish and Welsh governments to address significant concerns over asylum policy.

Ministers from the SNP and Labour devolved administrations have said reforms of the asylum dispersal scheme and national transfer scheme for unaccompanied asylum-seeking children are gravely needed.

In a wide ranging letter, Scotland’s social justice secretary Shona Robison and Welsh minister for social justice Jane Hutt also raised the issue of the Nationality and Borders Bill, asking for discussions to help prevent further loss of life in the English Channel.

The International Organisation for Migration says 166 people have been recorded as dead or missing since 2014 after undertaking the dangerous journey across the Channel, including 27 in the last month.

The letter calls for Home Secretary Priti Patel to reconsider her hostile environment strategy and develop sufficient safe and legal routes for asylum-seekers to claim asylum from outside Britain. 

The ministers say this would negate the need for perilous journeys and disrupt the business model of people-smugglers.

Both governments also claimed that current Home Office policies supposedly aiming to minimise loss of life in the Channel — including criminalisation of and reduced support for asylum-seekers — are unhelpful. 

The Nationality and Borders Bill is another point of contention in the letter, with the ministers warning that co-operative working to improve the legislation has been “virtually impossible” due to the approach taken by the Tory government. 

The Home Office must meet with devolved administrations before the end of the year to resolve the issues, Ms Patel was told. 

The Home Office was approached for comment.