German official Joachim Stamp has proposed sending asylum seekers to facilities in Rwanda funded by the UK, following the UK’s decision to scrap its own deportation plan to the East African nation. The plan, initially intended for the UK, would target refugees and migrants crossing the EU’s eastern borders, estimated at around 10,000 people annually. Rwanda has expressed its willingness to continue implementing this model.
The proposal comes as the German government faces pressure to address undocumented migration amid rising far-right sentiment and gains by the anti-immigration Alternative for Deutschland (AfD) party. Stamp, a member of the Free Democratic party, has rejected broader proposals to apply the model to all refugees, emphasizing that it would specifically target those crossing the EU’s eastern borders.
German Ambassador to the UK Miguel Berger clarified that there is no plan to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda but rather to process asylum applications in third countries under international humanitarian law with support from the UN. Under the UK’s plan, asylum seekers sent to Rwanda would stay if their claim was accepted, but legal challenges prevented deportations. Accommodation for migrants, funded by the UK, had already been built in Rwanda’s capital Kigali.
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