Barely two months after Britain’s new Labour government scrapped plans to deport illegal migrants to Rwanda, Germany has proposed adopting the scheme.
Its migration commissioner, Joachim Stamp, said Thursday that the German plan would focus on migrants coming across the European Union’s eastern border.
Germany has accepted millions of refugees over the past decade, but its ruling coalition government is facing rising pressure to restrict irregular migration.
This follows a deadly stabbing at a festival in the city of Solingen last month, which was claimed by the Islamic State group.
The incident further fuelled far-right criticism of Germany’s migration policies.
Stamp said Rwanda made most sense as a destination for illegal migrants as the UK’s facilities were still in place.
However, unlike the British plan, Germany’s scheme would be supervised by the United Nations.
“We currently have no third country that has come forward, with the exception of Rwanda,” Stamp said in a podcast by Table Media.
He said Rwanda has publicly expressed its willingness to continue implementing this model.
In addition, Stamp suggested removing the so-called “connecting element” in the new Common European Asylum System (CEAS).
This currently requires external asylum procedures to be conducted in countries where the asylum seeker has a social connection.
In December last year, the European Union agreed on new rules to handle irregular arrivals of asylum seekers and migrants.
The deal was hailed as a breakthrough after almost a decade of bitter feuds on the issue, but it could take until the end of 2025 for the pact to take full effect.