On October 24, a package of amendments to migration legislation came into force in Germany, simplifying the procedure for deporting or expelling migrants from the country. The new rules were introduced in connection with the mass influx of refugees from Africa and the Middle East. However, experts interviewed by DW note: the new measures will mainly affect citizens of third countries who have been in Germany for a long time and have been denied asylum. At the same time, the expulsion of migrants is a too complicated procedure that rarely goes smoothly.
The German police can stop the procedure at the very last moment, even if the foreigner has already been taken to the airport for forced deportation. 'If a person is sick or injured and clearly cannot fly, we take them to a doctor for examination,' explains Christian Altenhofen, press secretary of the federal police at Frankfurt am Main airport. 'We adhere to the principle that deportation should not be carried out at any cost. No deportation is worth jeopardizing a person's health or dignity.'
At the same time, in many cases expulsion simply cannot be carried out, notes lawyer Oda Jensch, who represents the interests of many asylum seekers. 'It happens that the internal regulations of airlines prohibit them from boarding passengers without their consent. And sometimes people actively resist – they shout, throw themselves on the floor and do not allow themselves to be taken anywhere,' the lawyer explains.
Such incidents will now likely occur more often. If an application for asylum has been rejected and the deadline for voluntary departure from Germany has expired, the person will no longer be informed about when exactly they will be deported forcibly, in order to prevent them from evading the authorities. This rule is enshrined in the new law.
In addition, the German government intends to use not only regular and charter passenger flights but also Bundeswehr military transport aircraft for deporting migrants. Other planned measures include the creation of transit zones for refugees on Germany's borders, as well as the lifting of the ban on deportations in winter.
Although the tightening of the migration law will increase the number of deportations, the new measures are unlikely to affect those refugees from the Middle East who are currently arriving in Germany en masse. Most often, people from the Balkans are deported – these countries are considered safe, so the chances of refugees from there obtaining asylum in Germany are virtually zero.
According to the German Interior Ministry, there are currently about 190,000 asylum seekers in Germany whose applications have been rejected. Of these, about 140,000 are entitled to temporary stay in the country for humanitarian or legal reasons. Now the government plans to revise the criteria for granting such status. 'We intend to eliminate factors that hinder deportation,' said Steffen Seibert, the official representative of the German government.
Despite this, currently only 50,000 migrants are actually subject to immediate deportation from Germany. At the same time, it is expected that at least 800,000 newly arrived refugees will submit asylum applications this year.
The leadership of the federal states is convinced that the new measures will not help local authorities cope with the influx of migrants. 'The number of asylum seekers arriving in Germany en masse is too large,' said Berlin's governing mayor Michael Müller in an interview with the dpa agency. Moreover, simplifying the deportation procedure will not solve the main problem of the German migration system – the shortage of well-trained personnel. As a result, asylum seekers are forced to wait for years for a decision from the authorities, emphasizes lawyer Oda Jensch.
Meanwhile, between 80 and 90 percent of migrants whose applications have been rejected voluntarily return to their countries of origin, says a press secretary of the Interior Ministry of the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Most often, this decision is made by people from the Balkan countries. In the case of deportation from Germany, a stamp is placed in their passport prohibiting them from re-entering Germany. But if citizens of Albania, Kosovo or Bosnia and Herzegovina return home voluntarily, they retain this opportunity.
In turn, such forced measures are costly for the German authorities, according to data from the European border agency Frontex. For example, to send 97 Kosovars and 89 accompanying persons on a charter flight from Hamburg to Pristina, the German government had to pay about 100,000 euros. Due to high costs, Germany is trying in every way to promote the voluntary return of migrants to their homeland.
A corresponding program is currently offered by the International Organization for Migration. Within its framework, migrants are provided with financial assistance to cover transportation costs, as well as a small start-up capital that will allow them to settle in their homeland. The maximum amount of assistance for one family is 900 euros.
In the period from January to September 2015, about 22,400 people took advantage of this opportunity. According to the federal states, the number of voluntary returns sometimes exceeds the number of deportations by even four times.