In the future, members of criminal clans should also be able to be deported if they have not yet been convicted of a crime. The Federal Ministry of the Interior (BMI) presented a corresponding proposal for amending the Aliens Act in a discussion paper last Thursday. The authorities could use it, for example, to expel a non-criminal member of the Abou-Chaker family in Berlin, who has been linked to organized crime, from Germany.
If Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) were to prevail with her plan, family affiliation could at least be an initial suspicion for expulsion from Germany. The BMI’s move is fueling resentment against migrants and stigmatizing them as “criminal clans,” says Clara Bünger, spokeswoman for the left-wing faction of the Süddeutsche Zeitung. “Faeser’s proposals are completely out of the question and aggressive right-wing populism.” Bünger sees a “new low point in a completely headless domestic policy” of the traffic light coalition. The idea that one can expel people who have the wrong last name is incompatible with the principles of the rule of law.
Are politicians exaggerating when it comes to clan crime?
Tareq Alaows from Pro Asyl also thinks the proposal is dangerous. “If you look at North Rhine-Westphalia, for example, that would be a reintroduction of family detention, which fundamentally contradicts our legal system.” The North Rhine-Westphalian Interior Minister Herbert Reul (CDU) is considered a hardliner when it comes to clans. A 2019 report by his ministry to the state parliament stated that “entry into the clan is usually birth”. Alaows finds that the issue of clan crime is being made politically bigger than it is.
Tareq Alaows from Pro Asyl.
(Photo: Reiner Zensen; via www.imago-images.de/imago images / Reiner Zensen)
Criminal law expert Arndt Sinn from the University of Osnabrück says he can understand the concern about criminal clans. Nevertheless, he is “considerably” bothered by the advance of the BMI. He is particularly concerned that people who have not committed a crime themselves are to be deported. “Belonging to any family cannot be a reason to remove someone from society.” Not every member of a family that is considered a clan is a criminal. And not every clan goes after organized crime in the sense of the Federal Criminal Police Office.
The BMI has a spokesman say: “Family membership is not a criminal activity, it always needs a connection to criminal offenses.” Facts must allow the conclusion that the person is part of a criminal organization. “The rule of law must not allow itself to be intimidated by organized crime. Freedom from residency laws must not be a place of refuge for criminals,” says Sebastian Hartmann, spokesman for the SPD parliamentary group in the Bundestag, commenting on the BMI’s proposal, on the basis of which the federal, state and local governments are working on an amendment to the law want. When that comes is completely open. On the other hand, one thing is certain: the majority of the clan members have German citizenship – and cannot be expelled anyway.