In North African countries
Traffic light examines relocation of asylum procedures
2/4/2023 2:28 p.m
The transfer of asylum procedures to North Africa has been under discussion in the EU for years. The special representative for migration agreements, Joachim Stamp, now wants to examine this. Human rights and the Geneva Refugee Convention are respected, he emphasizes.
According to the new special representative for migration agreements, Joachim Stamp, the traffic light government wants to examine the transfer of asylum procedures to Africa. “Then people rescued on the Mediterranean would be taken to North Africa for their trials,” said the former North Rhine-Westphalian integration minister to the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung”. “But that requires a lot of diplomacy and a long lead time.”
Asylum procedures in Africa have been the subject of heated debate in the EU for years. Former CDU Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière had already proposed in 2016 that refugees rescued in the Mediterranean should be taken to reception centers in North Africa and their right to asylum checked there. His successor Horst Seehofer from the CSU supported “disembarkation platforms” in North African countries in order to process asylum procedures there.
Such plans have never been implemented due to high legal hurdles and a lack of willingness on the part of African states. However, the SPD, FDP and Greens announced in their 2021 coalition agreement that they wanted to check “whether the determination of protection status in exceptional cases” is “possible in third countries” while respecting the Geneva Refugee Convention and the European Convention on Human Rights.
No deals like under Boris Johnson
“We have to take a close look at developments in potential partner countries,” said FDP politician Stamp, who has been tasked with negotiating migration agreements with refugees’ countries of origin for the federal government since February 1. It is clear that a country like Libya, for example, cannot be a partner in its current state. “It’s not about a rush job like former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson did with Rwanda.” International standards must also be maintained in Africa. “But on that basis, we actually want to think about it.”
Under former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Great Britain had signed a controversial agreement with Central African Rwanda to fly irregular refugees into the country without examining their asylum claims. This is to discourage people from making the crossing to the UK across the English Channel. Due to ongoing lawsuits against the regulation, however, it has not yet been implemented.
Cooperation with countries of origin
“It is crucial that we end both the deaths in the Mediterranean and the pushbacks at the EU’s external borders and reduce irregular migration,” said Stamp. To do this, you have to “take away the motivation from people to get involved in the life-threatening crossing in the first place”. The special representative called for irregular immigration to be brought under control through “migration agreements” with third countries: “Certain politicians used to make bold announcements about deportations,” he said. “But experience shows that if the countries of origin are not willing to take back their citizens who are required to leave the country, nothing will happen.”
Germany should therefore offer the most important countries of origin a certain number of regular visas, provided that they comply with their obligation to take back criminals, dangerous people and rejected asylum seekers without further ado. In addition, the cooperation between the authorities must be improved in order to be able to deport faster. The heads of the agencies involved talk to each other, “but not those who carry out the deportations in practice. I want to bring them together.”