refugees
2021 slightly more deportations than in the first Corona year
Rejected asylum seekers are picked up for transport to the airport. Photo: Sebastian Willnow/dpa-Zentralbild/dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
No one has been deported from Germany to Syria for years, and not even to Afghanistan since the summer. The fact that half as many people were deported in 2021 as in 2019 was mainly due to the pandemic.
Germany deported significantly fewer people last year than in the years before the corona pandemic. As the Federal Ministry of the Interior reported on request, there were a total of 11,982 deportations in 2021.
In 2020, which was even more marked by restrictions on international travel, German authorities organized and carried out 10,800 deportations. For comparison: in 2019 there were almost 22,100 deportations.
As the German Press Agency further learned, most of the deportations by plane last year – as in 2020 – went to Georgia and Albania. 1,116 persons obliged to leave the country were airlifted to Georgia, and 908 people were flown to Albania.
Return to Syria only voluntarily
In 470 cases, people who come from Syria and were illegally staying in Germany were deported last year – not to Syria, but to other countries in which they had previously been. In a recent response to a request from the left-wing faction, the federal government stated that Syrian citizens could only return to their country of origin on a voluntary basis. In 388 other cases, people were “pushed back” from Syria.
One speaks of deportations when people who have come to Germany without permission are brought back to their country of origin or to a European country that is responsible for them shortly after entering Germany. A total of 3,092 deportations were carried out last year.
Around 400 deportations were organized last year to take people from Turkey or Kosovo out of the country. The main target countries of the deportation flights in 2021 also included Serbia, Pakistan, Moldova and Romania.
Traffic light relies on migration agreements
The coalition agreement between the SPD, FDP and Greens states: “We are launching a repatriation offensive in order to implement departures more consistently, in particular the deportation of criminals and those who are at risk.” In addition, according to the will of the traffic light parties, migration agreements should be agreed with important countries of origin.
The federal government will appoint a special representative to design these agreements. However, the coalition partners have not yet reached an agreement as to in which ministry this new post should be located and who will hold this position. The consultations in the federal government “are still ongoing”, according to the Federal Ministry of the Interior.
The most populous federal state, North Rhine-Westphalia, organized the most deportations last year. Around 2,900 people were deported from there. According to a list by the Ministry of the Interior, the state of Berlin was responsible for 959 deportations. The federal police ordered 328 deportations.
When he took office in 2018, Seehofer announced that he wanted to ensure that fewer planned deportations failed in the short term. In fact, the annual number of deportations even fell during his tenure – even before the pandemic began.