faq
There is great pressure on the federal government to limit migration. Chancellor Scholz is now announcing faster deportations. How many people are currently required to leave the country and what is the Interior Ministry planning? An overview.
For months, German domestic politics has primarily revolved around one topic: How can illegal immigration to Germany be limited? At the weekend, Chancellor Olaf Scholz made a very clear statement about this: He wants to take tougher action against rejected asylum seekers. He told “Spiegel”: “We finally have to deport on a large scale those who have no right to stay in Germany.”
In some federal states, the first instance in deportation proceedings takes four months, in others 39. “That’s not possible,” said Scholz. The Chancellor wants to “deport more and faster” and spoke of “a whole package of measures”.
Who can actually be deported?
If an asylum application has been rejected, the person concerned is considered to have to leave the country and can therefore be deported to their country of origin. However, there are reasons why deportation can be postponed or suspended completely. Then a toleration is granted.
This can happen, for example, if someone has completed qualified vocational training, has a minor child with a residence permit or a serious illness would affect deportation. But there are also legal reasons that make it impossible to leave the country – such as missing travel documents. The responsible state authorities can also suspend the deportation for a maximum of three months for international law or humanitarian reasons.
How many people are currently obliged to leave the country?
at the end of June 2023 according to the federal government 279,098 people in Germany are required to leave the country. Of these, 224,768 people had a tolerated stay and 54,330 were immediately obliged to leave the country.
But it is important: not all those forced to leave the country are rejected asylum seekers. These also include people who are required to leave the country because of an expired visa or residence permit. According to the Central Register of Foreigners, there were 155,448 rejected asylum applications at the end of August. Of those affected, 135,984 had a tolerated stay. Only 19,464 rejected asylum seekers were therefore obliged to leave the country immediately.
The majority of rejected asylum seekers who are required to leave the country come from Iraq. This is followed by Nigeria, Russia, Afghanistan and Iran.
How many people were deported this year?
According to the federal government A total of 7,861 people were deported in the first half of 2023. They had very different nationalities, most commonly Georgian, North Macedonian, Afghan, Turkish and Albanian.
What is she planning? Federal government?
The federal government is aiming for a new migration package with which it wants to make it easier not only to deport foreigners but also to facilitate their access to the labor market. Interior Minister Nancy Faeser has presented a bill that is intended to speed up the repatriation of people without the right to remain. The cabinet is scheduled to deal with it on Wednesday.
The key points of the bill include:
- The maximum duration of immigration detention is to be extended from ten to 28 days in order to give the authorities more time to prepare for a deportation. A rejected asylum seeker is taken into exit custody in order to carry out an imminent deportation. There is also detention pending deportation, which can also last for several months. However, stricter requirements apply to detention pending deportation.
- If a person cannot show a passport, the authorities will in future be allowed to scan their cell phone or search lockers rented from others to determine their identity.
- In the future, the authorities should be allowed to enter more rooms, for example in a refugee accommodation, than just the room of the person who is to be deported. If she goes into another room or apartment when the police are at the door, she is not allowed to enter these premises according to current law.
Why do deportations still fail?
The fact that returns fail is also due to the fact that the respective countries of origin do not cooperate with Germany and want to take back their own nationals, said migration researcher Petra Bendel in an interview tagesschau.de.
According to Bendel, one solution to this is migration partnerships, as the Federal Commissioner for Migration Partnerships Joachim Stamp is currently negotiating. There were talks with Georgia and the Republic of Moldova, among others, but they remained unsuccessful.