“It seems Europe will reap the rewards of our world leading plans, thanks to this incompetent and weak Labour government.”

Germany is now exploring the use of asylum processing facilities in Rwanda, initially built for the UK under the Conservative government, which cost Britain £318 million.

After Keir Starmer’s Labour government swiftly scrapped the Rwanda migration scheme, Germany has surprisingly shown interest in repurposing the UK’s £318 million asylum processing facilities in Rwanda.

The German government, led by Migration Commissioner Joachim Stamp, is considering using the infrastructure to deport illegal migrants from Germany.

This potential move has reignited the debate around the scheme, with British Conservative figures like James Cleverly and Suella Braverman criticising Starmer for abandoning the policy, warning it might soon be reintroduced in some form through EU alignment.

Former Home Secretary Priti Patel, who was instrumental in setting up the Rwanda Plan said:

“By scrapping the Rwanda Partnership, Keir Starmer has given people smuggling gangs a free pass to put more lives at risk. It now seems Europe will reap the rewards of our world leading plans, thanks to this incompetent and weak Labour government.”

Migration Commissioner Joachim Stamp called on the EU to explore third-country processing, pointing out, “We currently have no third country except Rwanda.”

CDU members from Germany have already visited Rwanda, showing growing interest in offshore migration solutions as Europe grapples with rising asylum numbers. Joachim Stamp has said he sees the existing Rwandan infrastructure as an opportunity to address the EU’s migration crisis, saying that Rwanda could become a model for broader third-country processing across Europe.

This move by Germany is politically very embarrassing for Keir Starmer. After his government quickly scrapped the Rwanda migration scheme, which had been heavily criticised by Labour, Germany’s interest in using the UK’s £318 million investment in Rwanda’s asylum processing facilities highlights the potential effectiveness of the original plan.

This opens up space for Conservative figures to accuse Starmer of prematurely discarding a policy that other nations now see as viable, making it appear that his decision was more about optics than practical solutions to migration challenges.

As the EU looks to bolster its border control policies, the UK’s abandoned infrastructure could ironically play a pivotal role in shaping Europe’s migration strategy.

Photo: Prime Minister Keir Starmer at 10 Downing Street. Picture by Simon Dawson / No 10 Downing Street CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/