German official says Rwanda deportation plan using UK facilities considered
Al Jazeera
German official has proposed sending asylum seekers to facilities in Rwanda funded by the UK.
A German official has proposed sending asylum seekers to facilities in Rwanda funded by the United Kingdom, weeks after the UK discarded its own Rwanda deportation plan.
Germany’s Special Representative for Migration Agreements Joachim Stamp said the European Union could utilise existing asylum facilities in Rwanda, which were initially intended for Britain’s 2022 plan to send undocumented refugees and migrants to the East African nation.
That plan was scrapped by UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s new government in July after being declared unlawful by the UK High Court.
On Thursday, in a podcast by Table Media, Germany’s Stamp said that Rwanda has publicly expressed its willingness to continue implementing this model.
“We currently have no country that has come forward, with the exception of Rwanda,” he said, emphasising that the proposal would specifically target refugees and migrants crossing the EU’s eastern borders, which he estimated at around 10,000 people annually.
