Detention pending deportation in Bavaria: “A blot on our state” – Bavaria

Almost 2000 migrants were housed in the four Bavarian facilities for deportation last year. The level at the beginning of 2023 indicates a similar, slightly higher trend. The average length of detention in the institutions in Eichstätt, Hof, Erding and at Munich Airport was between 17 and 30 days. The maximum value was reached in Eichstätt in 2022, where a deportee detainee was imprisoned for 242 days. This emerges from the answers of the justice and interior ministries to two written questions from the Green MP Gülseren Demirel, which were published these days. The deprivation of liberty, above all so that migrants do not go into hiding before a planned repatriation, is ordered by a judge and, according to the law, is to be “limited to the shortest possible period”.

Demirel accuses the state government of treating refugees who are obliged to leave the country “illegally like criminals”, she speaks of an “inhumane refugee course”. The CSU and Freie Wahler ignored European and Bavarian jurisprudence when it came to the placement practice in “prison-like” facilities. Specifically, it is about a final decision by the Coburg district court from 2022. The reason was the case of an Iranian who was enforceably obliged to leave the country and injured himself before the flight – the repatriation had to be cancelled. The Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (Bamf) had rejected the asylum application of the man who had entered the country in 2016 and had not determined any further protection status. In his complaint about the detention pending deportation in Eichstätt, the court criticized the detention conditions there. These ran counter to a ruling by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) that detention “in a prison environment” should be avoided.

After the ECJ ruling, there were already changes that the Coburg court could no longer take into account, writes the state government. For example: extended visiting hours, not even counting access by lawyers and aid organizations, and more freedom of movement outside the room. Since then, the detainees in Eichstätt have generally been allowed to wear private clothing. The possession of mobile phones is still prohibited because otherwise there is a risk of conflict or illegal transactions between inmates. However, there is the possibility of making half an hour’s calls worldwide and free of charge; and, if there is a comprehensible reason, support for research on the Internet.

The room windows had to be barred, as in the other institutions, so that no one escaped deportation. In Eichstätt, Erding and at Munich Airport, only detention pending deportation is carried out, in Hof there is a strict structural and organizational separation from classic prisoners. “A further need for change” does not arise as a result of the Coburg court decision.

Yes, think the Greens. In the last session before the Pentecost break, the state parliament debated their draft law for a Bavarian law on detention pending deportation. A binding framework should therefore ensure that the measure is carried out “as humanely as possible and as little restrictively as necessary” – such as visits, telephone and mail or freedom of movement must be clearly differentiated from prison. The rights of inmates, Demirel said in the debate, “should not be left to the empathy and goodwill of prison management or politicians.” The fact that Bavaria, unlike other federal states, does not have such a law is a “blot on our federal state”. The initiative was rejected after a heated debate, only the SPD voted with the Greens; CSU, FW and AfD on the other hand, the FDP abstained.

Karl Straub (CSU) explained: If an application for asylum was rejected by the Bamf and often by several courts and the person concerned does not comply with his obligation to leave the country voluntarily, detention pending deportation is the “ultima ratio”. Addressing the Greens, he said: “You don’t want detention pending deportation because you don’t want deportations.” Alexander Hold (FW) attested to the fact that the opposition faction had lost all traction: while communities no longer knew where to set up containers for refugees, “comfortable accommodation for those who had to leave the country” was demanded. To describe the current practice as a disgrace for the rule of law is “cheeky”. Interior Secretary Sandro Kirchner (CSU) added that the federal government is also in favor of consistent returns. The Greens’ proposal would “complicate, slow down and make it almost impossible” to enforce the obligation to leave the country.

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