Could Germany resurrect Britain’s Rwanda migrant scheme?

When Keir Starmer became Prime Minister he immediately dumped the Tories’ Rwanda deportation scheme. The Labour leader said the £310 million scheme, under which those seeking asylum in Britain would be sent to Africa, was ‘dead’ and ‘buried’. But Germany is now considering resurrecting the plan and using Rwanda as a third party country for migrants with facilities paid for by Britain.

Germany’s special commissioner for migration agreements, Joachim Stamp, proposed deporting asylum seekers coming through Russia and Belarus to Rwanda while their applications are processed.

‘We currently don’t have a third country that has contacted us with the exception of Rwanda,’ Stamp said on Thursday, stressing that the East African nation already possesses the capacity to host asylum seekers thanks to Britain’s efforts under the previous deportations deal that was scrapped by Starmer in July. Stamp, a member of the Free Democrats (FDP), said that the German government ‘could utilise the existing structures that were originally prepared for the British.’

If Stamp follows through, it will be hugely embarrassing for Starmer who labelled the scheme a ‘gimmick’ after it was unveiled by Rishi Sunak. Germany, of course, will face similar difficulties to Britain if it does decide to go down the Rwanda path. But the scheme could solve one of Berlin’s big problems: what to do with migrants who come via Russia and Belarus.

The two countries have long been accused of smuggling migrants into the territory of the European Union to destabilise the alliance. Stamp argued that the influx of migrants is part of Russian president Vladimir Putin and his Belarusian counterpart Aleksander Lukashenko’s ‘hybrid warfare’ against the West.

Stamp suggested that any agreement with Rwanda would only apply to immigrants smuggled into the EU through Russia and Belarus. ‘My suggestion is that we focus on this group. We are talking about 10,000 individuals per year,’ Stamp said, while also stating that the third-country model could not be applied to all migrants who seek shelter. ‘Other countries would tap their forehead at us.’

In his role as special commissioner, Stamp has brought forward a four-point plan to battle irregular immigration. This involves the cancellation of social welfare benefits for those who are obliged to leave Germany as well as permanent border controls until the new Common European Asylum System has been fully implemented.

Stamp is now the first German government official to suggest the third-country model. The opposition Christian Democrat party, which has previously talked favourably about the Rwanda plan, is likely to back Stamp’s model. We are, of course, not likely to see migrants from Germany arrive in Rwanda any time soon. Stamp made his comments on a podcast recording and other government officials in Berlin seemed taken by surprise. But whether the plan does see the light of day, Stamp’s comments are embarrassing for Keir Starmer.

When the Prime Minister visited Berlin last week as part of a charm offensive, he set out to reset relations with the EU. But the revelation that Germany might use facilities in Rwanda – paid for by British taxpayers – to house migrants could spell trouble for Starmer.