Home Secretary Priti Patel has defended her overhaul of asylum seeker after allegations they are "inhumane" as she confirmed the UK will look at sending migrants overseas for processing.

The Witham MP will later outline a new plan on how the government will deal with people entering the UK 'illegally'.

Under the plans, people who enter the UK illegally to claim asylum will no longer have the same entitlements as those who arrive legally, under new immigration plans.

The British Red Cross has criticised the changes saying it will create an "unfair two-tiered system" for asylum.

Ms Patel defended the plans as necessary to deal with the "terrible trade" of people smuggling and to fix the "broken" asylum system.

She confirmed deals could be sought for foreign nations to process asylum claimants, saying the Government will "consider all options".

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The Home Office argued that "fairness" and a genuine need for refuge are at the heart of the new proposals, as well as including measures to tackle smugglers and "remove more easily from the UK those with no right to be there".

And the department said that "for the first time" whether "people enter the UK legally or illegally will have an impact on how their asylum claim progresses, and on their status in the UK if that claim is successful".

But British Red Cross chief executive Mike Adamson said: "We should not judge how worthy someone is of asylum by how they arrived here.

"The proposals effectively create an unfair two-tiered system, whereby someone's case and the support they receive is judged on how they entered the country and not on their need for protection. This is inhumane."

Ms Patel insisted she would work with the Red Cross and other organisations to create "safe and legal routes".

"What is inhumane is allowing people to be smuggled through illegal migration and that is what we want to stop," she told BBC Breakfast.

"We will create safe and legal routes to enable people to come to the United Kingdom in a safe way so that they can also be resettled in the United Kingdom and that is a fundamental change we want to bring in."

Last year about 8,500 people arrived in the UK by crossing the Channel in small boats and the majority claimed asylum, the Home Office said. Around 800 are estimated to have made the crossing so far this year.

Labour shadow home secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds said he feared the changes would not curtail the number of people making "dangerous crossings" to reach Britain.

"Measures are clearly needed to speed up processes and stop criminal gangs profiting from dangerous crossings," he said.

"However, we fear these plans will do next to nothing to stop people making dangerous crossings, and risk withdrawing support from desperate people, such as victims of human trafficking."