Germany’s plan to dump asylum-seekers in Africa shows disdain for human rights

London, March 16 (RHC)-- Germany is showing complete disdain for international conventions on human rights by sending away asylum-seekers to Africa or Eastern Europe with sheer impunity, according to an analyst.  

Jonathan Offei-Ansah, a London-based founder and publisher of Africa Briefing Magazine, in an interview with Press TV said Germany’s new migration policy means the country is only concerned about its own dynamics and simply acts against international laws on refugees.

“Germany is just acting with impunity in flouting the international convention on refugees because they need to take care of their own dynamics within the country, so they believe they can go against the UN Convention on refugees,” Offei-Ansah said on the weekly show Africa Today.

He slammed the conduct of Western countries in disregarding the principles of human rights while expecting other countries to adhere to them.  “Most Western countries believe that there’s one law for other countries and another law for them, so this is why they act with impunity, if it does not suit them they will not do it, it is as simple as that,” he said.

Germany, which appointed Joachim Stamp as the first-ever “special representative of the federal government for migration agreements” is considering plans to reach agreements with countries in Eastern Europe and Africa to set up centers where refugees are forcibly sent to asylums.

Human rights campaigners see it as a clear violation of international conventions on the protection of refugees.  According to the United Nations, the core principle of the convention is non-refoulment, which asserts that a refugee should not be returned to a country where they face serious threats to their life or freedom.

The German government is planning to implement a new migration policy, where asylum-seekers will be forcibly sent to other countries in a clear violation of international conventions on the protection of refugees.  Already, refugees in Germany are having a hard time and are under pressure to leave.

Germany's controversial new migration policy means that it now joins the bandwagon of European countries such as the UK and Denmark that support offshore asylum programs to dump refugees in other countries, especially in Africa.

Denmark, which has introduced increasingly harsh immigration policies over the last decade, passed a law in 2021 allowing refugees to be moved to asylum centers in a third country for claims to be processed.  Earlier this month, Britain set out details of a new law banning the entry of asylum seekers arriving in small boats across the English Channel.  The law prevents the refugees from claiming asylum and they will be deported either back to their homeland or to so-called safe third countries.

Last year, Britain agreed on a deal to send tens of thousands of migrants and asylum seekers to Rwanda. The first planned deportation flight, however, was blocked by a last-minute injunction granted by the European Court of Human Rights.

Offei-Ansah said it is fine to send back African nationals to their home countries but to send them to Africa would only add to the problems of the African continent.  "If somebody comes to your country, as a refugee you send them back to their country of origin, not to a third country," he remarked.

He also added that the new paradigm shift in Germany’s refugee policy might be partly affected by the pressure from neo-Nazis under the far-right xenophobes.  In January, neo-Nazis rioted against a planned refugee shelter in the northeastern German town of Grevesmuehlen. They wanted to prevent the construction of refugee accommodation in the town of Upahl.

“Maybe what the German government is doing is pandering to, the agitation by the neo-Nazis. So I believe that maybe the neo-Nazis are having some effect on German migration policy,” he said.