The federal government is making a new attempt to deport asylum seekers without a right of residence faster and more frequently. The Federal Cabinet has approved a corresponding legislative proposal from Interior Minister Nancy Faeser.
In the subsequent press statement, the SPD politician called it a “bundle of restrictive measures” that had been agreed upon within the traffic light coalition. Germany can only meet its humanitarian obligations for refugees if those who do not fall under this scope are deported more consistently, says the Interior Minister. The adopted migration package also includes measures that are intended to get refugees into work more quickly. The Bundestag will further change and finally decide on the plans.
The law provides for authorities and police to make it easier for authorities and police to access asylum seekers who are required to leave the country and thus prevent them from disappearing shortly before they are deported. To this end, it stipulates that those required to leave the country can be held in custody for 28 days instead of the previous ten days. In the future, when searching for deportees in shared accommodation, government officials will also be allowed to enter the premises of third parties if they have reasons to suspect that the person they are looking for is there.
The new law is also intended to enable the much-discussed tougher crackdown on smugglers and criminals. Expulsion should be made easier for smugglers who have been sentenced to at least one year in prison. “We have to move away from the far too low penalties for smugglers,” says Faeser.
The law also stipulates that if “concrete facts justify the conclusion” that an asylum seeker has contacts with organized crime, he or she may be deported even if the investigation has been discontinued and without a final conviction.
As of June 30, a total of 279,098 people in Germany were required to leave the country – but only a fraction of them are potentially at risk of deportation, the majority are tolerated. The group of those who will actually leave the country because of tougher deportation rules should therefore remain manageable.