The FDP wants asylum procedures based on the “Rwanda model”. Anyone who wants to keep vulnerable people out of sight at all costs is accepting enormous human suffering.

Deportation: FDP wants a German “Rwanda model” Photo: Daniel Kubirsk/imago

The federal government has just decided to tighten the EU asylum policy and its member, the FDP, is already calling for even more drastic measures. The fact that the demand for a “Rwanda model” is now well known and has already emerged from the Union does not make it any less regrettable.

The term refers to the system Britain decided on Tuesday: anyone who enters the country to seek asylum will be deported to Rwanda in the future. After the examination, he should receive asylum there; there are no plans to return to Britain.

That's what the FDP wants to do in Germany: assuming there is a country that is willing to accept refugees from Germany (quite unlikely), and assuming there is a way to make deportations legally possible (also unlikely), then the project still It remains a human rights disaster.

Even here in Germany, authorities do not always treat refugees with apprehension. But at least there is a strong judiciary, a distrustful media and a critical civil society that monitors the authorities.

Things are different in many countries that would likely be potential host countries. It is likely to be mainly the weak and authoritarian governments of the Global South that engage in Rwanda-style deals to secure money and Western goodwill. It does not seem very realistic that they should allow permanent high standards to be imposed on them in dealing with refugees, as Britain is now trying to do with Rwanda. They would be very difficult to control anyway.

There should be no illusions about what FDP politicians are demanding: anyone who wants to keep people in need of protection out of sight at all costs is accepting enormous human suffering.