With Chancellor Olaf Schulz and his ‘traffic light’ coalition enjoying dismal poll numbers, and with the recent victories by the Eurosceptics right-wingers of AfD in Eastern states, Germany’s government has decided to at least pretend to do something about one of the most concerning issues for the population: unchecked mass migration.
To do so, a surprising idea has arisen, in which Germany has demanded that the EU send migrants to Rwanda – using facilities originally built to receive those arriving in the UK by boat – before the new Labour government scrapped the plan.
It was German migration commissioner Joachim Stamp who proposed deporting those who arrive illegally in the bloc – but only those coming via Poland’s border with Belarus.
Daily Mail reported:
“Germany’s special representative for migration agreements, said the EU could utilize existing asylum facilities in Rwanda, which were initially intended for arrivals from Britain.”
One of Labour’s new Premier Sir Keir Starmer’s first acts after winning the election was to obliterate the scheme before it had even started.
Never mind that after the Tory government had already spent £290 million ($382 million) to get it going.
“The proposal comes amid rising pressure on Germany’s ruling coalition government to restrict irregular migration following a fatal stabbing linked to Islamic State at a city festival last month that fueled far-right opposition and criticism of Berlin’s migration policies.
Tory leadership candidate James Cleverly said: ‘Labour’s first move in government was to scrap the Rwanda plan. Now Germany wants to use the facilities we built. The only people who benefit from Labour’s reckless immigration policies are people smugglers and the EU’.”
New British PM Keir Starmer said the UK’s deal with Rwanda was ‘dead and buried’ and even tried to recoup some of the millions of pounds of taxpayers’ cash already spent.
The Rwandan government has denied any chance of a refund.
Under German Commissioner Stamp’s proposal, the asylum procedures in Rwanda would be conducted under the supervision of 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 published on Thursday.”
Stamp has specified that this model would only target refugees crossing the EU’s eastern borders.
“‘My suggestion would be that we concentrate on this group. It’s about 10,000 people a year,’ he said, dismissing broader proposals from the conservative opposition to apply such a model to all refugees.”
The European Union has finally agreed on new rules to handle irregular arrivals of ‘asylum seekers’ and migrants, after a decade of bitter disagreement on the issue. It could take until the end of 2025 for the pact to take full effect.
