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Germany: Migration commissioner proposes Rwanda deportations

September 5, 2024

Joachim Stamp accused Russia and Belarus of encouraging migration to the EU as part of their "hybrid warfare." These migrants should be sent to a third country such as Rwanda, he suggested.

https://p.dw.com/p/4kI8h
Federam migration commissioner Joachim Stamp
Stamp proposed a plan that had been sought by the previous conservative government in the UKImage: Kay Nietfeld/dpa/picture alliance

Amid Germany's increasing debate over deportation policy, federal migration commissioner Joachim Stamp discussed the possibility of deporting migrants to Rwanda if there were difficulties returning them to their homelands.

Speaking to the podcast Table.Briefings on Thursday, Stamp said that migrants coming to Germany via Russia and Belarus could be sent to the east African country. 

He described an influx of migrants from the two countries as part of Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Belarusian counterpart Aleksander Lukashenko's "hybrid warfare" against the West.

The pair are "deliberately sending migrants across the eastern border of the European Union," Stamp said, adding that it was likely part of a plot to entice Syrian, Iraqi, and Afghan refugees to reach Europe by way of Minsk and Moscow.

Stamp, a member of the neoliberal Free Democrats (FDP), said that the German government "could utilize the existing structures that were originally prepared for the British."

Successive conservative UK governments had sought a wide-ranging deal to send large numbers of asylum-seekers to Rwanda. However, this plan was declared unlawful by the country's high court and was eventually scrapped after Prime Minister Keir Starmer came to power.

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Stamp added the caveat, however, that this would require Germany to amend some of its deportation laws. Currently, migrants can only be deported to a country beside their homeland if they have some connection to it, such as relatives residing there.

Deportation has become a hot topic in Germany following a deadly knife attack in the city of Solingen by a rejected Syrian asylum-seeker who had been slated for deportation. Further complicating deportations to places like Syria and Afghanistan is that a person's homeland has to be both willing to receive them and considered safe.

In the wake of the Solingen attack, Chancellor Olaf Scholz has vowed to present new draft laws to speed up deportations by December.

es/nm (dpa, WELT)