Germany reportedly wants the EU to adopt a Rwanda-style migrant system involving the deportation of asylum seekers – similar to Britain’s proposed plan.
Germany is playing a “leading role” in advocating a deal with a non-EU state to filter out migrants who have little chance of asylum, Die Welt newspaper reported.
Rwanda and Niger are both considered partner countries and would be financially compensated for the deal, according to the report.
While Austria and Hungary want asylum seekers to be deported to an African partner country, regardless of which country they come from, Germany would like to limit this process to people who have spent time in the countries they would be exported to while their application is being weighed.
Coalition backbenchers fear the deal is designed to deter refugees from coming to Europe.
On the photo: Olaf Scholz (photo file). This week, 24 MPs from the Social Democrats and the Greens signed a letter from Scholz urging Berlin to stand up for migrants’ rights during the negotiations
This week, 24 MPs from the Social Democrats and Greens signed a letter from Olaf Scholz urging Berlin to stand up for migrants’ rights during the negotiations.
Scholz and Secretary of the Interior Nancy Faeser are determined to push through a deal given the increasing number of refugees arriving.
Faeser said: “If we fail today or in the next 14 days, it would send a bad signal that would lead countries to self-isolate. I don’t want that, I want to keep the borders open.’
“For us in Germany, human rights are paramount, and I will fight hard for that today,” she added.
The Social Democrats, the largest party in the coalition with the Greens and Free Democrats, are ready to support changes that keep migrants at the EU’s external borders.
The number of asylum applications in Germany has already reached 130,000 this year and local authorities say they no longer have room to detain the new arrivals.
In May, Scholz announced he would break with the liberal policies he inherited from Angela Merkel and would seek to reduce numbers through tighter border controls and more money for Frontex, the EU’s border control agency.
This has led to concerns that Scholz could shun fair asylum processes to reduce numbers.
The letter from backbenchers said: ‘We share many people’s concerns that the proposals for a new Common European Asylum System could weaken the right to asylum.’
Separately, 730 Green Party members have signed a letter demanding that their leadership change direction.
They said they were “appalled” by the proposals being negotiated in Brussels, which aim to introduce a new system based on “deterrence and exclusion”.
Pictured: German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser speak in Berlin on May 10, 2023, ahead of a Scholz summit with state leaders focusing on the country’s refugee policy
In the UK, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has ordered ministers to begin deportation flights for migrants to Rwanda within days of the settlement clearing legal hurdles.
In a highly unusual move, Sunak has set up a Covid-style cabinet committee to ensure that the Rwanda plan can “get off the ground” immediately.
The commission, now in office for a month, already meets twice a week to ensure there are no obstacles to deportation flights that will begin once the law on illegal migration is passed by parliament, likely in September.
A cabinet source described the preparations for the first flight as “extraordinary”.
“No stone is left unturned to ensure this runs smoothly,” said the source. “There really is no precedent for a prime minister to head such a committee on the implementation of a bill that has not even been passed yet.
“That legislation will effectively prohibit crossing the Channel. It is expected to pass in September and you will see flights within a few days.
‘People who arrive by small boats are held on barges for a day or so and then put on a plane to Rwanda or another safe country. Some of them may not even set foot on land.
‘We have to have everything in order for that: accommodation, transport, legal advice. All of that is now underway to ensure that things can happen immediately.
‘As soon as you get the first flights to Rwanda, you notice a deterrent effect. Officials won’t accept it – ministers have had to push this all along – but the prime minister is convinced.’
The Court of Appeal is expected to rule on legal challenges to the scheme this month, after the Supreme Court ruled in December that it was lawful.
A UK Home Office source confirmed that the scheme will not begin until all UK legal appeals have been exhausted.
The Prime Minister has suggested he is prepared to use Parliament’s bill to override the Lords, but this would delay legislation until next year.