MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Paraguay denies negotiations with UK regarding migrants

Paraguay did receive a note from the British government but there were no talks, Huttemann said

Paraguayan authorities Thursday denied press reports that British Home Secretary Suella Braverman had been brokering a deal whereby migrants arriving in the United Kingdom through the English Channel would be relocated to the South American country.

“The information disseminated by British media does not conform to the truth as far as Paraguay is concerned,” Paraguay's Foreign Ministry said in a statement. The document admits, however, that the British Government did explain the situation to leaders in several countries, but that Paraguay has never negotiated such a sensitive issue as migration with Great Britain.

Paraguayan Cabinet Chief Hernán Huttemann said Thursday that the South American nation appears in a list of 150 countries that received a note from the British Government in which the situation of immigrants is outlined, but in no way has Paraguay advanced in any negotiation and the issue was never even discussed with United Kingdom officials.

According to the Daily Express, Braverman is said to have advanced negotiations with Paraguay and other countries such as Peru and Belize in her search for alternatives to Rwanda.

The outlet also said negotiations with Paraguay were “at the most advanced stages” while “Belize was mentioned by a source as a possibility” that was later denied.

Braverman, who was sacked under Prime Minister Liz Truss and reinstated once Rishi Sunak took office, was reported to have been offered “'a free hand' to tackle illegal immigration, particularly the problem of the small boats in the Channel.”

“We have to break the business model of the people traffickers and we can only do that if the people they are bringing over understand that their final destination will not be Britain,” the Express quoted its source as saying.