Britain threatens to ban the entry of Eritreans due to Asmara's position on returning migrants

British Home Secretary Shabana Mahmoud has threatened to ban all Eritreans from entering the UK if Asmara does not increase its acceptance of returns of small boat migrants and foreign criminals.

Starting Thursday, Eritrean diplomats will face restrictions on their movements outside London. The granting of express visas to VIPs will also be stopped.

Ministers have previously put pressure on other countries to accept returns by threatening visa bans.

Eritreans were the most common nationality among migrants who arrived in Britain on small boats in the 12 months before June - making up 18% of arrivals, according to House of Commons Library figures.

The BBC contacted the Eritrean embassy in London for comment.

The British Home Secretary says: “Eritrea has had every opportunity to accept the return of criminals and those who have no right to be in the UK, and unlike other countries, it has refused to do so.”

She said she would not hesitate "to impose further measures on other countries that refuse to cooperate."

The British government accused the authorities in Eritrea, located in East Africa, of withdrawing their cooperation “surprisingly” earlier this year.

These restrictions mean that diplomats are prevented from traveling 60 kilometers outside London without permission.

The Home Office said this reflected restrictions imposed on British officials in Asmara, the capital of Eritrea.

Dr. Madeleine Sumption, director of the Migration Observatory at Oxford University, said targeting Eritrea would have little impact.

She told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "Eritrea is one of the main countries from which asylum seekers are coming to the UK - we received almost 7,000 asylum applications in the last year for which data was available, almost 8% of the total."

“Most Eritreans who come and ask for asylum cannot be deported at all – the government will not negotiate their deportation because 84% of them succeed in getting their initial asylum claim accepted; there will be more who succeed in their appeal.”

She added that about 1,400 people had their asylum applications initially rejected, but this number will decrease after appeals are filed.

Many young Eritreans are trying to leave the country - a one-party state - to avoid military conscription, which can drag on for decades.

Eritrea has not witnessed elections since its independence from Ethiopia in 1993, and there is no independent media. Critics of President Isaias Afwerki have been arrested and imprisoned for many years, often without trial.

Eritrea recognizes four religions: Orthodox Christianity, Sunni Islam, the Roman Catholic Church, and the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Eritrea - and followers of other faiths have been imprisoned for many years.

Earlier this year, the UK threatened to impose an embargo on Angola, Namibia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Restrictions were announced on the Democratic Republic of the Congo last year, but the Ministry of the Interior said these restrictions had been lifted after improved cooperation in tax filing processes.

Angola and Namibia agreed to the changes before the restrictions were imposed.

Announcing changes to the UK's asylum system in November, Shabana Mahmood said visa sanctions would be applied to countries that failed to co-operate with return policies.

The sanctions included an “emergency suspension” of visas for countries with high asylum claims until they take back their nationals residing in the UK illegally.

But Dr Sumption noted that the government may avoid targeting specific countries to avoid damaging trade relations.

“If we look at the total numbers of people whose asylum claims have been rejected and not returned to their countries of origin, places like Pakistan and Bangladesh would be at the top of the list,” she said.

“But the collateral damage of the visa ban to those countries when a lot of international students come, for example, and a lot of people come on work visas will be much greater than in a country like Eritrea.”