Cape Town - A deal with Rwanda would make Denmark the first EU member to effectively bypass the bloc’s fragmented migration and asylum system, say immigration analysts.
Denmark has signed a deal with Rwanda to move the Nordic country closer to setting up an asylum centre outside the EU to reduce the number of people seeking refuge.
The two countries declared a “joint ambition to collaborate on asylum and that they will set up a mechanism that could transfer seekers to Rwanda from Denmark”, according to a statement published by the government in Copenhagen on Friday, Bloomberg reported.
In June, Denmark passed a law enabling it to process asylum seekers outside Europe, drawing anger from human rights advocates, the UN and the European Commission.
Denmark passed the law with 70 lawmakers voting in favour and 24 against.
The legislation will complicate the EU’s efforts to overhaul Europe’s fragmented migration and asylum rules, an extremely divisive subject within the bloc, Reuters reported.
The European Commission, the EU’s executive, questioned the law’s compatibility with Denmark’s international obligations.
“External processing of asylum claims raises fundamental questions about both the access to asylum procedures and effective access to protection,” commission spokesperson Adalbert Jahnz said.
In August, the Danish government announced the opening of a project office in Rwanda's capital Kigali as part of the Nordic country’s plan to eventually set up an asylum centre in the East African nation.
“Denmark and Rwanda share a wish to help more refugees better than today and to fight irregular and life-threatening migration, including across the Mediterranean,” Immigration Minister Kaare Dybvad Bek said in a statement issued by the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday.
“Our shared goal is to reform the current, flawed asylum system and ensure a dignified and sustainable future for refugees and migrants. I am therefore pleased that we will soon be able to open an office in Rwanda,” he added.
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