Within 48 hours of arrival
Spahn wants to transport refugees to Ghana and Rwanda
December 17, 2023, 4:30 a.m
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The processing of asylum procedures in non-EU countries is the core demand in the CDU’s new migration concept. Party deputy Spahn hopes to have a deterrent effect on potential migrants.
Union parliamentary group vice-president Jens Spahn advocates deporting all refugees who enter the EU irregularly to Ghana, Rwanda or Eastern European non-EU countries. “If we do this consistently for four, six, eight weeks, then the numbers will drop dramatically,” said the CDU politician to the “Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung”. Many people would no longer set off towards the European Union “if it is clear that it leads to a safe third country outside the EU within 48 hours,” explained Spahn.
The third country proposal forms the core of the migration concept in the draft of the new CDU policy program presented last Monday. The aim is “contractual agreements according to which refugees can receive an asylum procedure there and, if protection is granted, can remain safe there,” explained Spahn. “Rwanda would probably be willing to do that, and Ghana might be willing too.” Talks should also be held with Eastern European countries such as Georgia and Moldova.
The Geneva Refugee Convention does not say that protection from wartime persecution in the EU must be granted, emphasized Spahn. If it is ensured that those persecuted in third countries “get a safe place of protection, are well looked after there and can live without fear, then the goal of the Refugee Convention will be fulfilled.”
The model proposed by the CDU of flying arriving asylum seekers to third countries as quickly as possible in order to process asylum procedures there follows the example of Great Britain. In April 2022, then Prime Minister Boris Johnson suggested this approach, meaning refugees should be brought to Rwanda. However, implementation is difficult; so far the project has failed due to legal hurdles. Most recently, the Supreme Court ruled that deportations to Rwanda violate international human rights law. The British government then concluded a new agreement with the authoritarian country to address concerns about the security situation there. The British House of Commons has now approved the asylum pact with a narrow majority.