Germany’s Migration Commissioner Advocates for Deportation of EU Arrivals from Belarus to Rwanda

September 5, 2024 TruthUSA

Joachim Stamp’s proposal mirrors the UK’s 2022 plan of relocating illegal immigrants to Rwanda, a policy that was canceled in July.

Germany’s migration commissioner has recommended the deportation of illegal immigrants who enter the EU through Belarus to Rwanda.

Joachim Stamp, Germany’s special representative for migration agreements, suggested utilizing facilities in Rwanda, established to handle the influx of illegal immigrants crossing the English Channel to the UK.

The Conservative government in the UK had agreed to the deal with Rwanda in 2022, but it was terminated by the new Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer after Labour’s victory in July’s general election.

Olaf Scholz’s coalition government has faced demands for stricter migration policies following an ISIS-related mass stabbing at a “Festival of Diversity” in Solingen last month, resulting in three deaths and eight injuries.

In June, an Afghan immigrant fatally stabbed a German policeman in Mannheim.

Criticism of the German government’s immigration policies has boosted the popularity of the anti-immigration party Alternative für Deutschland, which recently secured power in Thuringia.

Over the recent years, the EU’s eastern border has become a route of entry for numerous illegal immigrants.

Belarus, closely associated with Russia, shares borders with Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia, and criminal organizations have increasingly used it as an entry point into the EU.

Stamp, a member of the liberal FDP party in the ruling centrist coalition, suggested targeting and discouraging illegal immigrants exploiting the EU’s porous eastern borders using the Rwanda model.

‘10,000 People A Year’

In a podcast by Table Media released on Thursday, Stamp mentioned: “My suggestion would be that we concentrate on this group. It’s about 10,000 people a year,”

“We currently have no third country that has come forward, with the exception of Rwanda,” he added.

In the podcast, Stamp ruled out applying the Rwanda model to all illegal entries into the EU, such as those arriving by boat across the Mediterranean.

He noted that Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame had expressed readiness to continue with the model despite the UK government terminating its plan.

Under Stamp’s proposal, the United Nations would oversee the asylum application process in Rwanda.

Stamp also recommended eliminating the “connecting element” in the new Common European Asylum System, which mandates external asylum processes to be conducted in countries where the applicant has social connections.

Stamp operates under Germany’s interior ministry.

Interior Minister Nancy Faeser or Scholz, representing the center-left Social Democrats, have not commented on Stamp’s proposition.

In December, the EU agreed on fresh regulations for managing the influx of illegal immigrants and asylum seekers, a deal seen as a breakthrough after nearly a decade of political discord within the 27-member bloc.

The agreement is slated to take effect by the end of 2025.

Undated image of then Home Secretary Priti Patel and then Rwandan Foreign Minister Vincent Biruta signing the migration and economic development partnership in Kigali on April 22, 2022. (Flora Thompson/PA) — Undated image of then Home Secretary Priti Patel and then Rwandan Foreign Minister Vincent Biruta signing the migration and economic development partnership in Kigali on April 22, 2022. Flora Thompson/PA

In April 2022, then-Home Secretary Dame Priti Patel signed what she dubbed a “world-first” agreement with Rwanda.

In June 2022, the first flights transporting illegal immigrants from the UK to Rwanda were halted following a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights indicating a “real risk of irreversible harm.”

Patel—eliminated in the initial round of the Conservative Party leadership voting, now in opposition—was later dismissed by then-Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, but he persisted with the Rwanda plan in spite of legal obstacles.

The UK Supreme Court determined that Rwanda wasn’t a “safe” nation, thus rendering it unsuitable for the deportation proposal.

Earlier this year, Sunak’s government pushed the Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration Act) through Parliament.

The legislation confirmed Rwanda’s status as a safe country, but the plan was never implemented as the Conservatives were defeated in July’s general election, and the new Prime Minister, Sir Keir, promptly discarded the Rwanda policy.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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