A German official has proposed sending asylum seekers to facilities in Rwanda funded by the United Kingdom, weeks after the UK left its own. Rwanda Deportation Plan.
Joachim Stamp, Germany’s special representative for migration agreements, said the European Union could use existing asylum facilities in Rwanda, initially intended for Britain’s 2022 plan to send undocumented refugees and migrants to the east African nation.
That was the plan Canceled by UK Prime Minister Keir Starmers A new government in July after being declared illegal by the UK High Court.
On Thursday, in a podcast by Table Media, Germany’s Stamp said Rwanda has publicly expressed its desire to implement the model.
“We currently have no country that has come forward, with the exception of Rwanda,” he stressed, adding that the proposal would specifically target refugees and migrants crossing the EU’s eastern borders, which he estimated at around 10,000 people annually.
The suggestion comes as the German government faces a surge in far-right sentiment and Recent election gains by the anti-immigration Alternative for Deutschland (AfD) party.
Stamp, who belongs to the Free Democratic Party (a junior partner in Germany’s governing coalition) and works in the interior ministry, has rejected widespread proposals by the conservative opposition to apply such a model to all refugees.
Miguel Berger, the German ambassador to the UK, said it was separate from the UK scheme.
“The German government has no plans to deport asylum seekers in Rwanda,” he said. “There is discussion about processing asylum applications in third countries under international humanitarian law and with UN support.”
Under the British scheme, asylum seekers sent to Rwanda would remain there if their claim was accepted but would not be allowed to return to the UK. Otherwise, they can apply to settle in the country on other grounds or seek asylum in a different country.
Legal challenges Prevented people from being deported from the UK to Rwanda, but accommodation for migrants, Funded by the UKThe capital was already built in Kigali.
Post A German official says plans to deport Rwanda using UK facilities are being considered appeared first Al Jazeera.