The foreign minister of Botswana has told a South African TV channel that the British government approached his country to make enquiries as to whether it would be willing to receive migrants deported from the UK.
He didn’t say when the approach was made.
Africa Today News, New York reports that this is coming against the backdrop of unconfirmed reports earlier this month in the British press that the UK government was seeking to replicate its controversial Rwanda scheme in Botswana, Armenia, Ivory Coast and Costa Rica.
Speaking in a phone interview on Newzroom Afrika, Lemogang Kwape said Botswana refused the request. He added that contact was made by Britain’s foreign secretary and its minister for Africa through “diplomatic channels”.
Mr Kwape said Botswana was unable to accept migrants from Britain because it was dealing with its own immigration issues.
Read Also: Botswana Threatens To Send 20,000 Elephants To Germany
“The British government does not want these people in their country so they want to ferry them to a faraway country….To receive unwanted immigrants from another country while we’re dealing with our own problems in the region would be unfair to Botswana,” he said.
In another report, the President of Botswana has threatened to send 20,000 elephants to Germany over a brewing political dispute.
Africa Today News, New York recalls that a few weeks ago, the Ministry of Environment in Germany suggested there should be stricter limits on importing hunting trophies.
However, Botswana’s President, Mokgweetsi Masisi told German media this would only impoverish Botswanans.
According to him, elephant populations had risen due to conservation efforts and hunting was necessary to control their numbers.
Germans should “live together with the animals, in the way you are trying to tell us to”, Mr Masisi told German newspaper Bild.
The country is home to about a third of the world’s elephant population – more than 130,000.
Herds were causing damage to property, eating crops and trampling residents, he told Bild.