The high number of unsuccessful deportation attempts
The alleged perpetrator from Solingen was supposed to be deported from Germany, but this did not happen. This is one of many cases: every year thousands of deportations fall on deaf ears. Many of those deported go into hiding or cause unrest.
The suspect behind the attack on Berlin's Breitscheidplatz in December 2016, Anis Amri, was also supposed to be deported. But the proceedings were not initiated due to Amri's lack of identification documents.
These cases are not uncommon. Two-thirds of deportations in Germany fail. While there were more deportations in the first half of the year, only about 56% of the planned 24,000 returns took place. In 2021, 31,330 ID cards.
The Dublin Agreement assumes responsibility
In the case of Solingen, a transfer to Bulgaria was planned for last year, but it never happened. When the responsible immigration authorities in Bielefeld visited his refugee accommodation in Paderborn to pick him up, he was not there. Issa H. had fled and could not be found for six months. Months later, he turned up again with the authorities and was finally accommodated in a refugee home in Solingen.
The deportation failed due to the Dublin Agreement. This regulation states that the EU country responsible for the asylum procedure is also the country in which the person initially entered. In this case, it would have been Bulgaria. But Issa H.'s disappearance after the six-month period meant that Bulgaria was no longer responsible. “He had been taken in as a Dublin refugee under German responsibility,” explains Federal Justice Minister Marco Buschmann. “We therefore need to discuss how we can deport people more quickly and effectively, particularly in Dublin cases.”
Expulsions are announced
The main problem with unsuccessful deportations is that the people concerned are often not in their homes or accommodation when the police come to pick them up. This is because the deportation dates are announced in advance. The people concerned are informed of the police operation and have enough time to hide.
“Three quarters of cases fail for this reason, a very high number,” says the chairman of the Bavarian Police Union, Florian Leitner, in an interview with RTL. The transmission method could be changed “so that they are not transmitted a few days in advance,” but this would require legal changes, explains Leitner.
Those affected also warn each other. Activists also warn deportees via social media or messenger services when a charter flight is organized for deportations. If there are no seats available on the planes, it is clear that it is a deportation flight, says the police union spokesman in Berlin, Benjamin Jendro, in the Berlin “Tagesspiegel”. Then the officers often find the first person affected, but not the second.
Insufficient detention places for deportation
Authorities can now search other rooms in group accommodation, not just the room of the person to be deported, as the Bundestag decided at the beginning of the year. But a comprehensive search, especially in large accommodations, is not feasible, says Bavarian police union representative Leitner. This would cause unrest and a massive police deployment. If a person is not found, the responsible immigration authority is informed, which then decides on the next step, for example applying for a deportation arrest warrant.
But there are too few places for deportation detention, criticizes the chairman of the police union, Andreas Roßkopf, in an interview with ntv. Although the Bundestag has extended the maximum duration of deportation detention from 10 to 28 days, this is of little use if, as was the case last year, all 800 places for deportation detention are occupied, according to Federal Police President Dieter Romann.
Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser has so far taken a relaxed view of the issue. She believes that the federal government has taken sufficient measures and “launched a major repatriation package”. However, the provision of deportation detention places is the responsibility of the states.
Many deportations fail at the airport or on the plane. Airlines or pilots refuse to transport people to be deported because they deliberately behave badly. “Flight safety is in the hands of the respective pilot, and he decides,” says GdP MP Leitner. “If the person, whether man or woman, refuses to board the plane, becomes aggressive or causes unrest, the pilot says: No, I'm not taking you with me. Then the whole thing has failed.”
It is different with charter flights. “But chartering an entire plane is expensive. If I want to enforce this, I have to pay and provide the necessary staff to deport more people,” says Leitner.
If the person in question refuses, sometimes with violence, the federal police are no longer responsible, but the state police. And if there is no arrest warrant, the person subject to deportation must be released.
Deportations can also fail for health reasons. Sometimes the countries of origin refuse to take people back. In other cases, identification documents are missing. The authorities then have to check the nationality of the person concerned and obtain replacement travel documents. However, they are dependent on the cooperation of the countries of origin.
The situation in the Thuringian town of Apolda is a prime example of this dilemma. The person concerned, a rejected asylum seeker, is suspected of having committed several crimes in Germany. However, his departure seems difficult due to a lack of documents and the lack of cooperation from the Moroccan authorities. Thuringia's Interior Minister Georg Maier expressed his outrage on ntv: “He comes from Morocco and now it's about getting a passport. The Moroccan authorities have to cooperate. Unfortunately, this has not happened as expected.”
To correct the high rate of failed deportations, police unions are calling for improved cooperation between local police forces and national intelligence services, advanced equipment and expanded powers. “We need to expand the powers of the police. We need to be able to carry out deportations more effectively and efficiently.
Denmark is often seen as the best example. This Scandinavian country has long had a strict asylum policy in place. Fewer asylum applications are submitted there than in Germany, while asylum seekers who do not have the correct residency status regularly face deportation.
In Denmark, a strict asylum policy has led to fewer asylum applications and regular deportations of asylum seekers with illegal residency, which could serve as an example for other countries. The situation in Apolda, Thuringia, is nevertheless difficult due to uncooperative Moroccan authorities and a lack of identification documents, which delays the deportation of a person with rejected status and a criminal history in Germany.
Two thirds of deportations in Germany fail, and many of these people hide or cause unrest before their scheduled deportation, making it difficult for the authorities to carry out the process. This is especially true for refugees, as shown by the case of Anis Amri, suspected of the Breitscheidplatz attack in Berlin, who was also scheduled for deportation but disappeared before the process began.
