German junior coalition party urges UK-Rwanda model for refugees

Despite massive international criticism of the UK government's planned asylum pact with Rwanda, some German lawmakers from the liberal-conservative Free Democrats (FDP) are calling Germany to strike a similar deal.

"I think it would be right for us to consider carrying out asylum procedures in third countries outside Europe," the leader of the FDP's faction in German parliament, Christian Dürr, told the Augsburger Allgemeine newspaper.

"With a legally secure regulation, we could create clarity about the protection status and prevent people without prospects of staying from embarking on the dangerous route across the Mediterranean," he said.

The FDP is currently the smallest party in German Chancellor Olaf Scholz's three-party coalition government, alongside Scholz's centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) and the Greens.

The UK Parliament passed the controversial asylum pact with Rwanda on Tuesday night, which will allow authorities to deport asylum seekers who arrive in the UK without valid papers immediately.

Asylum seekers will be allowed to apply for asylum in Rwanda under the terms of the deal, but they will no longer be allowed to return to the UK, regardless of their country of origin.

The UK's Conservative government has faced massive international criticism over the plan, as well as ridicule over the costs.

But German conservatives have been following the UK-Rwanda deal with interest. Lawmakers from the centre-right Christian Democrats and its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CDU/CSU) opposition bloc have long demanded that the European Union transfer asylum procedures to countries outside the EU.

Scholz's government has promised to study the issue, and an initial report is scheduled to be presented to the leaders of Germany's 16 federal states on June 20.