The planned deportation of an Amazon employee from Swabia to Iran came to a dramatic end on Thursday afternoon. As the federal police at Frankfurt Airport confirmed in response to SZ’s request, the rejected asylum seeker Ehsan M. was already on the plane to Tehran when he got up from his seat before takeoff and fled from the plane towards the airport. Since he didn’t stop, federal police had to stop him and restrain him. “He allowed himself to be arrested without resistance,” says a police spokesman. The Iranian was brought onto the airliner without a police escort. According to his lawyer, he was very afraid of returning to Iran, where, according to his brother, he took part in demonstrations critical of the regime.
The 34-year-old will now be transferred to the Bavarian state police and brought back to Bavaria. The federal police reported him for resisting law enforcement officers. It was initially unclear whether and when there would be another deportation. The Bavarian Interior Ministry left an SZ request unanswered. The Lufthansa flight from Frankfurt to Tehran took off almost an hour late – without Ehsan M. on board.
The Iranian living in the Allgäu was taken into custody pending deportation last week. His asylum application was rejected in 2019, and since then he has been living in Germany with a tolerated stay. Until his arrest, Ehsan M. worked full-time at the Amazon logistics center near Augsburg.
“The deportation attempt is shocking,” said Stephan Dünnwald from the Bavarian Refugee Council on Thursday afternoon. “The young man had given up his passport, he had a permanent full-time job at Amazon, he spoke German well, he had a circle of friends here and also a brother.” The Iranian is an example of other cases in which well-integrated and hard-working workers are to be deported from Bavaria, said Dünnwald. “The economy is being damaged here in order to indulge in cheap populism.”
The goal of deportation also attracted criticism. The security situation in Iran is classified as critical by German authorities. Since the death of Jina Mahsa Amini on September 16, 2022, there has been massive state violence against demonstrating citizens in the country. According to a United Nations report, a total of 551 protesters were killed by security forces, most by gunfire. UN experts speak of a “systematic attack against the civilian population”.
Between October 2022 and December 2023, the German federal states decided to stop deportations to the autocratic country. This was not extended, so deportations to Iran have been possible again since January. According to the Interior Ministry, Bavaria has already deported four people to Iran this year, two of whom had committed criminal offenses. Ehsan M. would have been the fifth.
When SZ asked, the Federal Ministry of the Interior (BMI) distanced itself from the decision. “The human rights situation has not improved since the protests following the death of Jina Mahsa Amini. Federal Interior Minister Faeser has great respect for the courage of the people in Iran who stand up for freedom and human rights. The BMI would therefore have supported an extension and agreed to it explained,” said a spokesman at the beginning of the week. The human rights organization Pro Asyl had also criticized the end of the deportation ban: “Germany cannot guarantee deportees that they will not be arbitrarily detained or tortured in custody in Iran – and is therefore not allowed to carry out deportations.”
At Frankfurt Airport on Thursday, a small group protested with banners against the planned deportation of Ehsan M. The demonstration was initiated by exiled Iranians and human rights activist Behrouz Asadi. “It is a great relief that Ehsan M. was not deported today,” says Asadi after the drama at the airport. “Iran is not a safe country.”