Germany’s Migration Commissioner Says EU Arrivals From Belarus Should Be Deported to Rwanda

Border guards patrol on quads along the border wall at the Polish-Belarusian in north-eastern Poland on June 8, 2022. Wojtek Radwanski/AFP via Getty Images

Germany’s migration commissioner has suggested that illegal immigrants who arrive in the European Union through the border with Belarus should be deported to Rwanda.

Joachim Stamp, Germany’s special representative for migration agreements, said the EU should use facilities in the east African nation, which were set up to deal with thousands of illegal immigrants crossing the English Channel to Britain.

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

Olaf Scholz’s coalition government has come under pressure to take a tougher stance on migration following an ISIS-linked mass stabbing at a “Festival of Diversity” in Solingen last month that left three people dead and eight wounded.

In June, an Afghan immigrant knifed a German policeman to death in Mannheim.

Criticism of the German government’s immigration policies has led to the rising popularity of the anti-immigration party Alternative fur Deutschland party, which last week won control in the eastern state of Thuringia.

The European Union’s eastern frontier has become a point of entry for thousands of illegal immigrants in recent years.

Belarus, which is closely aligned with Russia, has borders with Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia, and human trafficking gangs have been increasingly using it as a back door into the EU.

Stamp, a member of the liberal FDP party, which is a member of the ruling centrist coalition, said the Rwanda model should be used specifically to target and deter illegal immigrants using the EU’s porous eastern borders.

‘10,000 People A Year’

In a podcast by Table Media uploaded on Sept. 5, Stamp said: “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 using the Rwanda model on all those entering the EU illegally, for example by boat across the Mediterranean.

He said Rwandan President Paul Kagame had publicly expressed his willingness to continue with the model, despite that the British government terminated its plan.

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

Stamp also suggested removing the “connecting element” in the new Common European Asylum System, which requires external asylum procedures to be conducted in countries where the applicant has a social connection.

Stamp’s role comes under Germany’s interior ministry.

Neither Interior Minister Nancy Faeser nor Scholz, both of whom represent the center-left Social Democrats, has commented on Stamp’s proposal.

In December, the EU agreed on new rules for handling the arrival of illegal immigrants and asylum seekers, a deal that was seen as a breakthrough after almost a decade of political disagreement across the 27-member bloc.

The agreement is not due to take effect until 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

In April 2022, Britain’s home secretary at the time, Dame Priti Patel, signed what she called a “world-first” agreement with Rwanda.

In June 2022 the first flights taking illegal immigrants from Britain to Rwanda were halted after the European Court of Human Rights ruled that there was a “real risk of irreversible harm.”

Patel—who on Sept. 4 was knocked out in the first round of voting for the leadership of the Conservative Party, which is now in opposition—was later sacked by then-Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, but he persevered with the Rwanda plan despite legal obstacles.

The UK Supreme Court ruled that Rwanda could not be considered a “safe” country and was therefore not an appropriate place for the deportation plan.

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

The legislation confirmed that Rwanda was a safe country, but the plan was never put into effect as the Conservatives lost July’s general election and the incoming Starmer immediately scrapped the Rwanda policy.

Reuters contributed to this report.