Denmark may process refugees in Rwanda

THE Danish government is considering transferring asylum seekers to Rwanda for processing in a move described as a “new low” in the country’s crackdown on immigration.

MPS were due to discuss a draft bill last night that would allow Denmark to transfer migrants for “adjudication of asylum claims and accommodation in third countries”.

It comes after the foreign ministry this week published a memorandum of understanding with Rwanda stating the government’s ambition of processing asylum applications “outside of the EU in order to break the negative incentive structure of the present asylum system”. The deal stops short of including a commitment from Rwanda.

Nils Muižnieks, European director of Amnesty International, said: “These proposals show that Denmark is shifting their responsibility to protect refugees – it is a new low.”

Processing refugees in Africa would be “not only unconscionable, but potentially unlawful”, he added.

Last month Denmark became the first European nation to revoke the residency of Syrian refugees, claiming that parts of the war-torn country were safe to return to. Denmark is also now the only country in Europe to have begun negotiations with a host country on moving the asylum process overseas.

The UK Home Office was considering a similar scheme earlier this year, with reports suggesting that Gibraltar or the Isle of Man could be used to process asylum seekers.

The idea was said to be based on a controversial Australian system.

Mattias Tesfaye, the Danish immigration minister, told the Jyllands-posten newspaper in January that he had held discussions with the UK and Norway over setting up refugee reception centre in a third country, but nothing appears to have come of the talks.