Where is Ascension Island and why is UK considering sending asylum seekers there?
The government has not ruled out a previously abandoned plan to send asylum seekers to Ascension Island.
Home Office minister Sarah Dines said on Monday that people who enter the UK on small boats could be sent to the volcanic island, a British Overseas Territory in the south Atlantic.
The plans are reportedly being considered as a back-up to the controversial scheme to send asylum seekers to Rwanda, which has been stalled by legal challenges that will end up in the Supreme Court.
On Monday, the first asylum seekers boarded the Bibby Stockholm barge in Portland, Dorset, although several others did not go on the vessel following legal challenges.
Yahoo News UK takes a close look at Ascension Island:
Where is Ascension Island?
Ascension Island is a British Overseas Territory, located about 4,000 miles from the UK in the South Atlantic Ocean.
The volcanic island is east of Brazil and west of Angola.
The island is about 807 miles north west of the island of St Helena.
How large is Ascension Island and who lives there?
The island is just under 34 square miles in size.
There is no permanent or Indigenous population on the island - instead it is made up of employees and their families who work there.
About 800 people live on the island at any point in time, made up of St Helenians, Americans and Britons.
What is on Ascension Island?
The island has two settlements, Georgetown and Two Boats.
It has two military bases, which are home to the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the United States Air Force, along with an airfield and a BBC relay station.
Read more: Ascension Island part of ‘additional measures’ to tackle small boats
Ascension Island has a handful of shops, gyms and swimming pools and a cinema.
The temperature of the island ranges from 20C to 38C, with a wet season running from January to April.
The island has the Green Mountain, which has a peak of 859m, as well as low coastal areas and an array of native wildlife, including turtles, seabirds and crustaceans.
Who runs Ascension Island?
The island is not a part of the UK, rather it has its own constitution that it shares with St Helena and Tristan da Cunha and is self-governing. The UK is responsible for defence, international relations and security on the island.
Ascension Island has five councillors and the governor of St Helena, Nigel Phillips.
The island was used as a base by the US during the Second World War and as a support base for the RAF during the Falklands War.
Why is the UK considering sending asylum seekers there?
Home Office minister Sarah Dines confirmed on Monday that the government is looking at "additional measures" following reports that plans to send asylum seekers to Ascension Island could be revived.
It is being positioned as a “plan B” if the scheme to send migrants to Rwanda fails.
The island could host an asylum processing centre in an attempt to reduce the number of small boats crossing the English Channel.
Dines said “times change” and that the small boats crisis had become “urgent” when asked why the Ascension Island plan was reportedly being reconsidered after seemingly being rejected by Boris Johnson’s former government.
However, ministers have been advised by senior officials that the Ascension Island plan is a "non-starter", the Daily Telegraph reported.
In plans first revealed in 2020, former home secretary Dame Priti Patel reportedly ordered department officials to explore plans for building an asylum processing centre on the island.
Moving asylum seekers there and keeping them supplied was said to represent a considerable logistical challenge, with the idea apparently dropped.
Watch: Asylum seekers spend their first night on Bobby Stockholm
