THE AFRICAN COURIER. Reporting Africa and its Diaspora! The African Courier is an international magazine published in Germany to report on Africa and the Diaspora African experience. The first issue of the bimonthly magazine appeared on the newsstands on 15 February 1998. The African Courier is a communication forum for European-African political, economic and cultural exchanges, and a voice for Africa in Europe.
Plans to send some rejected asylum seekers to centres outside the EU are moving from political debate towards implementation. But serious questions remain over human rights, legal safeguards and Europe’s responsibility for people it wants to remove.
Germany and four other EU countries are stepping up efforts to establish so-called “return hubs” in countries outside the European Union, with Rwanda emerging as a leading potential partner. The issue has moved quickly in recent days: representatives of Germany, Austria, Denmark, Greece and the Netherlands have held discussions with potential partner countries.
At a meeting in Copenhagen on 4 September, the five countries agreed to work towards arrangements with non-EU countries during 2026, with the aim of making the first transfers possible from 2027.
Meanwhile, Rwanda has confirmed it is holding talks with Germany and the four other EU countries over hosting centres for persons whose asylum claims have already been rejected in Europe, reviving a contested deportation model that collapsed in the United Kingdom just two years ago.
Rwanda’s Foreign Minister, Olivier Nduhungirehe, told the news agency AFP that visits had indeed taken place and that negotiations were continuing, though he declined to give details of participants or timing.
For readers new to the debate: A return hub is envisaged as a facility in a third country where people who have no legal right to remain in an EU country could be transferred while arrangements for their return are made. Depending on the agreement, the third country could be the final destination or a transit point before onward return to their home countries.
The legal basis is the new EU Return Regulation, agreed by the European Parliament and member states in June. It permits agreements with third countries for return hubs, but requires those countries to respect international human-rights standards and the principle of non-refoulement – meaning people must not be sent to a country where they face persecution or serious harm. Unaccompanied minors are excluded from such arrangements.
One site under discussion in Rwanda is Gashora, a transit centre roughly 60 kilometres from Kigali. It currently houses people evacuated from dangerous conditions in Libyan detention camps under a programme run with the UN refugee agency and the African Union, a humanitarian purpose quite different from processing European deportees, though officials have floated repurposing part of the facility.
The idea is not new. Britain signed a similar deal with Rwanda in 2022, only for its Supreme Court to rule it unlawful, partly over fears that people sent to Rwanda could then be pushed onwards to countries where they faced persecution, so-called chain deportation. Britain’s Labour government scrapped the scheme in 2024, after paying Rwanda substantial sums for a plan barely implemented.
Rights groups, including Human Rights Watch, argue Rwanda would struggle to meet basic human-rights standards required of such a host, citing restrictions on press freedom and political dissent. Opposition figures who criticised the earlier UK deal, such as Victoire Ingabire, now face prosecution themselves. Critics say Kigali has increasingly turned migration cooperation into a diplomatic and financial asset, taking on Europe’s most politically difficult task in exchange for funding and influence, even as it remains unclear whether any agreement with Germany and its partners will actually materialise.
Adira Kallo
