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Denmark Setting Up Rwanda Office as Part of Overseas Asylum Scheme

CC0 / Pixabay / Rwanda (image d'illustration)
Rwanda (image d'illustration) - Sputnik International, 1920, 19.08.2022
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While Denmark's controversial plan to “outsource” immigration affairs to Rwanda has prompted accusations of human rights violations, the Nordic country is not bound by EU law due to a series of opt-out clauses. So despite both internal and external opposition, the Danish government is pressing on with the project.
Denmark's Foreign Ministry is setting up an office in Rwanda, where the government wants to create a reception center outside the EU.
According to the ministry's press release, this step is meant to further strengthen immigration cooperation. To begin with, two diplomats will be sent to Rwanda's capital, Kigali, in the second half of 2022.

“Denmark and Rwanda share the desire to help more refugees better than today and to combat the irregular and life-threatening migration across the Mediterranean Sea,” Denmark's Social Democrat Immigration and Integration Minister Kaare Dybvad Bek said in the press release. “Our common goal is to do away with the current failed asylum system and ensure a dignified and sustainable future for refugees and migrants. I am therefore delighted that we will soon be able to open an office in Rwanda,” he added.

In a subsequent interview with TV2, Dybvad Bek described it as “going one step further” toward creating a reception center.
“I'm not saying that this solves everything. But it is a step on the way to fulfilling the ambition, which ensures that we get a reception center built. In relation to the negotiations we are having, this helps to give us new opportunities, as we are permanently present in the country,” he added.
Under a contested law passed last year, Denmark allows refugees arriving in the country to be moved to asylum centers in a partner nation. The Rwanda plan has since become a major prestige project for the Social Democrat government. According to the plan, Denmark will be able to send asylum seekers to Rwanda where their applications will be handled, instead of housing them on its own soil.
The plan has been mired in controversy both at home and abroad, with critics arguing that the “inhumane” initiative violated the European Convention on Human Rights and EU law. Denmark, however, is not fully bound by EU law due of a series of special opt-out clauses pertaining to its membership in the bloc.
Nevertheless, the government's sidekicks, the Social Liberals, stated that they cannot accept the Rwanda scheme, instead proposing a joint EU reception center as an alternative to the perilous journey across the Mediterranean.
Similar plans to send asylum seekers for processing in Rwanda as part of a tougher immigration scheme have been voiced in the UK, prompting condemnation from human rights groups and opposition politicians, as well as accusations of “unethical” behavior.
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