German authorities are trying to stimulate the voluntary departure from Germany of migrants who have been denied asylum.
However, as Deutsche Welle notes, in practice only 35,000 of them have received an order from bailiffs to leave Germany, and even fewer have been deported – 19,520 people from January to September. By the end of this year, this number is unlikely to reach 20,000.
The lion's share of "rejected" individuals receive a temporary suspension of deportation (Duldung). The reasons can vary. One of them is the lack of readmission agreements with the states from which the refugees arrived in Germany. "A whole range of countries of origin, in fact in violation of international law, refuse to take back their own citizens," says CDU migration expert Stefan Harbarth.
Often, however, the refugees themselves show remarkable ingenuity to obtain a suspension of deportation from Germany. Some get rid of documents without which deportation becomes problematic, others are helped by lawyers specializing in refugees or compassionate German doctors who issue fake certificates.
The German government pointed to the latter circumstance a year ago in response to a query from the Left Party. Allegedly, too often a medical certificate contains only a "presumed diagnosis" and a recommendation to "refrain from forced deportation."
To make life easier for local authorities deciding on granting a temporary suspension of deportation, and for the "rejected" individuals themselves to decide to leave Germany voluntarily, the federal government announced a new program of financial assistance for voluntary returnees in addition to the one already existing since February of this year. Currently, every adult refugee who agrees to leave Germany for home can receive 1,200 euros from the German state if their asylum application is still pending. The amount for those already rejected is less – 800 euros. For children under 12 – half. From February to October, 8,639 refugees and their family members used this program.
The new additional "severance payment," just announced by Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière, effectively doubles these amounts. While until now a family of three could count on 3,000 euros (1,200 per adult and 600 per child), now they are promised relocation assistance of 6,000 euros.
But for the German treasury, this is still cheaper than paying for forced deportation or month after month transferring cash benefits to refugees who have received a temporary suspension of deportation. Here is just one example cited in this context by Deutschlandfunk radio: the deportation of 34 Afghans in September, which sparked a wave of criticism, cost the German treasury 350,000 euros, not counting the salaries of police officers who accompanied the deportees to their destination.
For a young family, for example from Eritrea, six thousand euros is a fortune. And Thomas de Maizière urges refugees to take advantage of the generosity of the German state. "You have prospects in your homeland," the minister addressed them on Sunday, December 3, in the pages of the newspaper Bild am Sonntag. "We will provide you with concrete assistance for reintegration."
There is, however, one catch. The additional program of assistance for voluntary returnees is limited to three months. Therefore, the minister is rushing refugees – they have time to decide to leave Germany with the doubled "severance payment" only until the end of February.
This circumstance has drawn sharp criticism from German human rights activists. The head of the non-governmental organization Pro Asyl, Günter Burkhardt, said in an interview with the DPA agency that such a time limit represents a temptation for refugees to make rash decisions and called it a "discount for the rule of law, like at a winter sale." Those who don't hurry, they say, will be left behind.
Moreover, in exchange for the "severance payment," refugees must sign a pledge of their final renunciation of seeking justice in German courts – in the event that the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) sends a negative response to their request for asylum in the country. "In this way, people are encouraged in a very bad manner not to use their legal rights," Burkhardt pointed out.