migration
Deportation of clan members? restraint in the SPD
Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) Photo
© Christoph Soeder/dpa
Is the proposal from the Federal Ministry of the Interior an effective tool for combating clan crime, or is it just an air act? SPD politicians are cautious, sharp criticism comes from the Greens.
The proposal by Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser (SPD) to expel non-convicted members of criminal clans is defended by SPD politicians. The effect that Faeser’s advance could have in the clan milieu is evaluated cautiously even by them – also because a large part of the clan members either have a German passport or an unclear identity.
The deputy chairman of the SPD parliamentary group, Dirk Wiese, said on Deutschlandfunk on Tuesday that there should be “clear points of reference” in individual cases that someone belongs to the criminal organization. Just because someone has the same family name is not enough. Rather, the person concerned must have committed crimes before or be involved in criminal structures. In addition, every person concerned has the opportunity to have an ordered expulsion checked by an administrative court.
But no question of family relationship?
A spokeswoman for Berlin’s Senator for the Interior, Iris Spranger (SPD), also emphasized that mere belonging to a family cannot be a decision-making criterion. She said: “In a constitutional state, it must always be about individually attributable behavior.” The discussion paper submitted by the Federal Ministry of the Interior is also about “belonging” to a criminal organization under the Criminal Code, i.e. about “membership” and not about family relationships. It is also clear, however, that the democratic constitutional state must take every possible opportunity to protect people from crime.
There is resistance to the proposal made by Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) to deport clan members from the coalition partner Greens, as interior politician Irene Mihalic emphasized. She told the editorial network Germany that regulations outside the rule of law are never up for debate. “This also applies to measures that treat relatives of criminals who have not been convicted of a criminal offense in the same way as criminals.”
The deputy leader of the Union faction, Andrea Lindholz (CSU), said on Monday that instead of raising expectations that ultimately could not be met, Faeser should “become active and negotiate concrete agreements with countries like Lebanon on the return of criminals”.
Many clan members with a German passport
A discussion paper by the Federal Ministry of the Interior provides that deportation should already be possible if facts justify the conclusion that someone was or is part of a criminal organization. A ministry spokesman had already explained on Monday that deportation according to such a regulation requires a clear connection to criminal activities. A family membership in the clan alone is not enough.
In Berlin, especially the younger members of clans with roots in Arab countries usually have German citizenship. Some of the older members, on the other hand, are stateless and therefore often cannot be deported.
According to the Berlin situation report on clan crime, around 43 percent of the 519 people who were assigned to this milieu were German citizens in 2021. The nationality of almost every fifth person (19 percent) was unknown or unclear. The third largest group were Lebanese (around 16 percent).
According to the Federal Ministry of the Interior, clan crime is characterized by “a high degree of isolation due to family structures shaped by ethnicity, their high potential for mobilization and aggressiveness, and practiced parallel justice, which negates the state’s right to prosecution and calls the rule of law into question”.
Meanwhile, according to a survey, the vast majority of the population doubts that there will be more deportations in the future. Only 14 percent of those surveyed believe that the federal and state governments will be more successful in deporting foreigners who are required to leave the country. 79 percent don’t believe that, according to the current “trend barometer” of the television channels RTL and ntv.