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.