The federal government’s special representative for migration agreements has warned against threatening countries of origin of migrants with the withdrawal of visas or economic aid in order to persuade them to accept more returns. “If we appear with the colonial attitude, ‘We here, as strong Europeans, are now showing you how to do it’, then we often hurt the pride of the population,” said Joachim Stamp (FDP) in the RTL / ntv “Frühstart” on Thursday. “The politicians there don’t go along with that either.”
The background to this is the EU’s recent efforts to deport more rejected asylum seekers to their homeland in view of the overburdened asylum systems in many EU countries. Brussels has been trying to do this for years but is making little progress. It is disputed how much pressure the EU should exert on countries of origin with which cooperation is difficult, and on the other hand how much incentives for cooperation should be created. Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) recently spoke out against using the EU visa policy offensively as a means of pressure. Swedish Migration Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard, on the other hand, said after a meeting of EU interior ministers last week that EU states agreed that this is an important instrument.
Stamp, the former North Rhine-Westphalian integration minister, as the federal government’s special representative for migration agreements, is to ensure that agreements are concluded with the countries of origin that simplify labor migration and facilitate deportations. The newly created post is located in the Federal Ministry of the Interior.
Stamp said he wants to offer states visas for apprenticeships or jobs. He also called for more engagement in transit countries like Niger. If people were informed there about what actually awaited them in Europe, “many of them might not even set out.” He also suggested bringing the Union on board when drafting new migration agreements. After all, many interior ministries in the federal states are run by CDU and CSU politicians. The federal states are responsible for deportations in Germany.
