Germany proposed sending refugees to Rwanda, Georgia and Moldova

Opposing the government of Social Democratic Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Germany’s conservatives are seeking to win back votes with sweeping changes to the country’s immigration and asylum policies, including plans to send asylum seekers to Rwanda.

According to The Guardian, Jens Spahn, a leading member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), said over the weekend that his party favors the transfer of future refugees to third countries to have their asylum claims processed, such as Ghana and Rwanda in Africa, or in European countries outside the EU such as Moldova and Georgia.

“If we did this and continued like this for four, six, eight weeks, we would see that the number [ходатайствующих о предоставлении убежища] has dropped sharply,” said Spahn, who is the CDU’s deputy parliamentary leader.

The comments suggest that the UK’s controversial policy of sending asylum seekers to Rwanda is gaining momentum internationally. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has proposed sending asylum seekers to Albania. Austria has also expressed its interest in such a scheme, The Guardian recalls.

Jens Spahn defended the 70-page position paper presented by the CDU last Monday, in which the party said that if it came to power it would propose limiting the number of asylum seekers coming to Germany and relocating those who had entered the EU. to “safe third countries” where their applications will be processed.

The CDU has made no secret of its aims to win back votes from the far-right nationalist Alternative for Germany (ADG), which ranks second in opinion polls, citing migration, along with inflation, as the main issue for many Germans, which is likely to dominate the campaigns. regional elections next year and federal elections expected to take place next year. will take place in autumn 2025.

Spahn called third countries “safe havens” that “will comply with the provisions of the UN Convention relating to the Status of Refugees.”

Speaking to the Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung newspaper, a CDU leader said the plan would serve as a deterrent to refugees who choose “illegal routes” to reach Germany and ask for asylum. “If we are consistent on this issue… many people would not travel at all if it was clear to them that within 48 hours they would be in a safe third country outside the EU,” he said.

The proposal is a key part of the CDU’s so-called “basic principle” program, under which the party in government will seek to enter into contractual agreements with third countries that will be legally obliged to provide protection to new arrivals, The Guardian notes.

Countries such as Morocco and Senegal have also been put forward as possible third countries.

Spahn said: “Rwanda has said it would be willing to do this, probably Ghana too. We should also negotiate this with Eastern European countries such as Georgia and Moldova.”

He said that nowhere in the Geneva Refugee Convention does it say that the protection of people from war must be ensured in the EU. “If we ensure that persecuted people have a place of protection where they are well cared for and can live without fear, then the objectives of the Geneva Convention will be fulfilled,” the politician added.

Jens Spahn says Germany’s weight in the EU ensures that whether or not it was behind the concept, “it will be able to secure majority approval and, given a coalition of willing people, it can also be implemented.”

“Once this message spreads, people will no longer pay smugglers and traffickers, no longer travel along these dangerous Mediterranean routes. Then these terrible deaths will stop, and then the rights of the strongest – because almost only young men come – will stop,” Spahn said, adding that in his opinion, if a solution to the “migration problems” is found, he is “very confident that radical parties will lose their positions. “popularity.”

Legal and humanitarian experts have actively expressed their concerns about the strategy towards third countries. The German Council of Experts on Integration and Migration has repeatedly called on proponents of the strategy to explain how procedures can be ensured in accordance with European asylum and human rights standards. No country has yet managed to implement this practice.

Irene Mihalic of the Greens accused Jens Spahn of pandering to right-wing voters. “Fortunately, we are in a constitutional state and need legally viable solutions to deal with more people seeking protection rather than populism that violates human rights,” said Mihilak, who recently criticized Spahn’s calls for the use of “physical violence” at the external borders of the EU against “illegal migration”.

The CDU’s position is seen as an attempt by the party to break with the era of Angela Merkel, under whose leadership Germany registered about a million refugees in 2015, The Guardian emphasizes. The party slogan “Wir schaffen das” (“we can handle it”) now appears to be in sharp contrast to the current position of the CDU.

Conservative Angela Merkel’s successor as chancellor, Social Democrat Olaf Scholz, has stressed the importance of reducing the record number of asylum applications, which rose 80% in the first seven months of this year compared with last year, by introducing restrictions on benefits, speeding up processing of applications and tightening restrictions on the number accepted and their cost. country of origin.

Scholz also considered the option of a third-country plan, despite widespread misgivings within his own party, but did not directly mention Rwanda, only indicating he was open to discussing its practical and legal feasibility. “There are a number of legal issues,” he said recently.