Good morning, dear reader,
Olaf Scholz had an unusual visitor yesterday. It has been a full six years since the last time a British head of government was received at the Chancellery in Berlin. 2019 was a certain one Boris Johnson He had only been in office for a month when his first visit abroad took him directly to Berlin Angela Merkel. At that time, Johnson tried to negotiate concessions from the Chancellor for Great Britain to leave the EU. But the charm offensive, in which he even used Merkel’s famous sentence “We make it” quoted, fizzled out in Berlin.
Until yesterday, no British head of government was seen in the capital. Johnson’s short-term successor Liz Truss had not been able to set it up in her month and a half in office – and Sunak now needed all of it 18 Fun in office for his inaugural visit.
Loading…
Embed
The timing seemed right. Sunak sees himself on the political upswing right now. 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 successful, they will then be allowed to stay in the African country; there are no plans to return to Great Britain. What Sunak claims as a success is actually a procedure that is not practical, but is inhumane.
It would be a fatal mistake for Germany, from a humanitarian, legal and financial point of view.
At the same time, the British government will probably have to prepare for new waves of lawsuits in the future, despite the law. The Supreme Court in Great Britain initially ruled that the project violated British law and international law. However, the British government is overcoming this with a trick: Rwanda was quickly declared a safe third country by law, even though the court had previously decided that it was not. Or to put it another way: The British government wants to explain to its citizens that the sun is shining while everyone looks out the window and sees rain.
Two years ago, the European Court of Human Rights stopped a planned Rwanda flight 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 ignore this if necessary. Incidentally, this is not enough for the hardliners within Sunak’s Conservatives: they would like to repeal British human rights laws, the European Convention on Human Rights, the Geneva Refugee Convention and other agreements. Terminating contracts, that already worked wonderfully with Brexit.
But are the Rwanda flights perhaps at least ultimately cheaper than the previous methods? There are big doubts about that too. Not a single flight has taken off yet. Nevertheless, the project is said to have already cost half a billion euros. The costs are estimated at several hundred thousand euros per refugee. For comparison: Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz had agreed with 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 Great Britain’s example. However, I haven’t told you the best counter-argument: the current annual reception capacity in Rwanda is supposed to be only be designed for a few hundred refugees. This year alone, 4,600 people came to the island by boat by March. Sunak had repeatedly said that the measure was intended to serve as a deterrent for refugees not to make the journey to Great Britain in the first place. But how is that supposed to work when everyone knows that only a fraction of those arriving will actually end up in Rwanda?
The Chancellor did not address the issue directly when he and the British Prime Minister appeared before the press yesterday afternoon. But some of the formulations gave a deep insight: We would continue to work with Great Britain on migration issues, but “while respecting fundamental rights and international law,” Scholz told the capital’s press. The statements were clearly aimed at the Rwanda model. In addition, the Chancellor continues to advocate for legal migration routes. Because that’s what we need “so that economic growth and economic prosperity can continue to be guaranteed in the future.” Scholz made it clear that, in his view, the British had miscalculated with Brexit.
When Scholz was then asked directly whether the Rwanda model was also an option for Germany, he evaded the question. Last year, the most far-reaching measures to control migration in the last 20 to 30 years were adopted. The Chancellor also referred to the EU’s most recent asylum reform. It was the second verbal slap in the face to Brexit supporter Sunak.
Loading…
Loading…
Loading…
