Union interior ministers dampen expectations of deportation plans
Deportation: Police officers escort an Afghan man onto a charter plane at Leipzig-Halle Airport. photo
© Michael Kappeler/dpa
Interior Minister Faeser promises more and faster deportations. Chancellor Scholz even spoke of large-scale returns. However, the Union and local authorities are reducing their expectations of new legal plans.
Several of the Union’s state interior ministers have doubts about the effectiveness of the government’s plans for more consistent measures Deportations. The German Association of Cities also has low expectations of the plans of Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD). The federal cabinet decided on it on Wednesday, and the Green Party ministers also agreed. Federal Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) defended the package, including against criticism within his own party.
Among other things, the plan is to extend the maximum duration of so-called exit custody from the current 10 to 28 days. There should also be expanded powers for authorities and tougher action against smugglers. With the law, which still has to be passed by the Bundestag, the government wants to reduce the number of deportations that fail in the short term.
Opinions of the state interior ministers
Hesse’s Interior Minister Peter Beuth, who is also the spokesman for the Union-led states in the Conference of Interior Ministers, told “Welt”: “It must be clear to everyone that this bill will not bring any significant relief to the municipalities.” In order to really limit immigration, Germany and Europe would need an “asylum turnaround”. Brandenburg’s Interior Minister Michael Stübgen (CDU) admitted that the provisions in the law will make deportations easier in individual cases and speed up administrative procedures. “The number of deportations will not be significantly increased by this law,” Stübgen told the newspaper. Deportations usually fail because passport papers are missing or the countries of origin do not want to take their compatriots back. These problems would not be solved by the bill.
Baden-Württemberg’s Minister for Justice and Migration, Marion Gentges (CDU), spoke of a “repatriation defense” with regard to the draft law. There was a lack of practical support measures for the work of the countries responsible for implementing deportations. Bavaria’s Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann (CSU) was relieved when asked by “Welt” that “the federal government is finally getting going on the issue of migration.” But the law is not a panacea. “Without appropriate agreements on the return of rejected asylum seekers who are obliged to leave the country with the often uncooperative countries of origin, which only the federal government can negotiate and enforce, it will not be possible to massively increase the number of returns,” stated Herrmann.
Criticism of the legal plans
The German Association of Cities sees it similarly. Its general manager, Helmut Dedy, correctly stated the goal of faster repatriation. “But these measures will only become effective when the countries of origin also accept these people,” said Dedy to the editorial network Germany (RND/Thursday). To achieve this, reliable take-back agreements must now be concluded quickly with the respective countries of origin.
Criticism of the legal plans came from the Green parliamentary group on Wednesday. MP Filiz Polat announced that her group would raise “constitutional and European law concerns” in the Bundestag deliberations. She spoke of “disproportionate interference with the fundamental rights to freedom, inviolability of the home and privacy”.
“I don’t share that,” said Economics Minister Habeck about the skepticism in his party. The Federal Ministry of Justice and the Federal Ministry of the Interior have examined the legal questions intensively. The fact that there must be repatriations of those obliged to leave the country and at the same time increased efforts to integrate those who could stay in Germany has been the Green Party’s program for years, said the Vice Chancellor on Wednesday evening in the ARD “Tagesthemen”.
Habeck made it clear that the deportation plans were only part of an overall concept. This also includes easier access to the labor market for migrants who are already in Germany. This package should arrive next week. “If they are here now and behave sensibly, are not criminals and so on, then they should be able to work here too,” said the Economics Minister. And anyone who doesn’t want to go, doesn’t have a toleration permit or a residence permit, will have to be repatriated.