NINETEEN EU countries demand the right to introduce Rwanda

Release time：2024-06-03 17:56:12 Source：Earth Enquirer news portal

The EU is facing demands from a host of member states for the right to introduce Rwanda-style deportation schemes.

The Czech and Italian PMs are leading a 19-strong group asking Brussels to let them transfer migration procedures outside the bloc's territory. 

UK government sources said the move showed that 'the fundamentals of our plan are making sense to people across the world'.

The news comes amid signs that the Rwanda policy is already having a deterrent effect, even though the first flights have yet to take off.

Ireland has complained that migrants are crossing the border to avoid being deported to the African state, while one Channel arrival claimed last week they had paid £500 to be smuggled back to France.

Migrants being brought ashore on the Italian island of Lampedusa

The proposals are likely to be considered by the EU commission after the European elections

Italian PM Georgia Meloni pictured with Rishi Sunak last year

Denmark is also among the EU states sending a letter to the commission saying they support the transfer of migrants picked up at sea to countries outside the EU.

The proposals are likely to be considered by the executive branch after the European elections.

At a joint press conference with Italian PM Georgia Meloni yesterday, the Czech premier Petr Fiala said: 'The Czech Republic and Italy are among the countries that want to go beyond where the migration pact has taken us and want to find a real solution to illegal migration, which we do not yet have in Europe.' 

A UK government source told MailOnline: 'Increasingly as governments around the world face up to the global challenge of mass migration they are looking at similar solutions to the one this Government has introduced. 

'The fundamentals of our plan are making sense to people across the world but not to the Labour Party here, who think scrapping Rwanda and only rebranding a unit already set up by the PM and actively tackling criminal people smuggling gangs is enough.' 

The High Court in Belfast ruled yesterday that the immigration legislation underpinning the Rwanda scheme cannot be applied in Northern Ireland as it is subject to EU human rights rules. 

Camille Le Coz, an expert from the Migration Policy Institute Europe, said that there were 'many questions' about Rwanda-style arrangements would work in the EU.

Under the bloc's laws, immigrants can only be sent to an outside country where they could have applied for asylum, provided they have a sufficient link with that country.

EU ministers meeting in Brussels are set to give their formal approval to new migration policies this week after the European Parliament voted them through last month.

The proposals harden border procedures and force all member states to share responsibility for arrivals. 

What other countries are looking at sending asylum seekers abroad? 

Denmark and Czechia

Both countries have held talks with Rwanda over an arrangement similar to that struck by the UK.

Copenhagen has signed a memorandum of understanding with the African state. Although it insisted asylum seekers will not be sent in the short-term, the document said: 'The vision of the Danish Government that the processing of asylum applications should take place outside of the EU in order to break the negative incentive structure of the present asylum system.'

Italy

PM Georgia Meloni has hailed a pact with Albania to process thousands of asylum seekers arriving in Italy by sea.  

The centers are under Italian legal jurisdiction - unlike the UK's arrangement with Rwanda - and built at Italy's expense 

Migrants leaving France to cross the Channel to the UK last month 

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