Olaf Scholz Welcomes British Prime Minister for Talks on Migration Policies: Germany’s Reaction to Rwanda Plan

Good morning, dear reader,

Olaf Scholz had an unusual visitor yesterday. It has been a few years since the last time a British head of government was received at the Chancellor in Berlin. 2019 was very special Boris Johnson He had only been in office for a month when his first trip abroad took him directly to Berlin Angela Merkel. At that time, Johnson tried to get concessions from the Chancellor for Britain to leave the EU. But the offensive charm, in which he even used Merkel’s famous sentence “we’re doing it” mentioned, issued in Berlin.

Until yesterday, the head of the British government was not seen in the capital. Johnson’s short-lived successor Liz Truss she was unable to organize it in her month and a half in office – and Rishi Sunak need it now 18 Jokes in office for his inaugural round.

The timing seemed right. Sunak sees himself on the political rise at the moment. The so-called “Rwanda Act” was approved by the British House of Lords on Tuesday night. In the future, all refugees who arrive on the island without the necessary documents will be flown to Rwanda. Only there are they allowed to apply for asylum. If they succeed, they will then be allowed to live in the African country; there are no plans to return to Britain. What Sunak describes as success is actually an impractical but inhumane approach.

It would be a fatal mistake for Germany, from a humanitarian, legal and financial point of view.

At the same time, the British government may have to prepare for new waves of lawsuits in the future, despite the law. The High Court in Great Britain initially decided that the project violated British law and international law. However, the British government overcomes this with a trick: Rwanda was quickly declared a safe third country under the law, even though the court had previously decided that it was not.

Two years ago, the European Court of Human Rights stopped a planned flight in Rwanda at the last minute. It is quite possible that the court will continue to make this decision in the future. However, Sunak has already announced that he wants to avoid this if necessary. By the way, that is not enough for hardliners within the Sunak Conservatives: They would like to restore the British human rights laws, the European Convention on Human Rights, the Geneva Refugee Convention and other agreements. Ending contracts, which already worked wonderfully with Brexit.

But are Rwanda flights perhaps ultimately cheaper than the previous methods? There are serious doubts about that too. Not one flight has started yet. Despite that, it is said that the project has already spent half a billion euros. It is estimated that the costs are several hundred thousand euros per refugee. For comparison: Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz was agreed by the Prime Minister last year that the federal government would in future pay a flat rate of 7,500 euros per asylum seeker per year.

All of the objections mentioned should be reason enough for Germany not to follow Britain’s example. However, I did not tell you the best counter-argument: the annual reception center in Rwanda is supposed to be. be designed only for a few hundred refugees. This year alone, 4,600 people came to the island by boat before March. Sunak had reiterated that the measure was intended to act as a deterrent to refugees not making the journey to Britain in the first place. But how should that work when everyone knows that only a fraction of those will enter Rwanda?

The Chancellor did not address the issue directly when he and the British Prime Minister appeared before the media yesterday afternoon. But some of the creations gave a deep insight: we would continue to work with Great Britain on migration issues, but “by respecting fundamental rights and international law,” Scholz told journalists in the capital. The statements were clearly aimed at the Rwanda model. In addition, the Chancellor is still advocating for legal migration routes. Because that’s what we need “so that economic growth and economic prosperity can be guaranteed in the future.” Scholz made it clear that the British, in his opinion, had made a mistake with Brexit.

When Scholz was asked directly if the Rwanda model was also an option for Germany, he answered the question. Last year, the most extensive measures to control migration in the past 20 to 30 years were adopted. The Chancellor also referred to the EU’s latest asylum reform. It was the second verbal slap against Brexit supporter Sunak.