THE AFRICAN COURIER. Reporting Africa and its Diaspora! The African Courier is an international magazine published in Germany to report on Africa and the Diaspora African experience. The first issue of the bimonthly magazine appeared on the newsstands on 15 February 1998. The African Courier is a communication forum for European-African political, economic and cultural exchanges, and a voice for Africa in Europe.
Close to 11,500 people were deported from Germany in the first six months of 2019, slightly fewer than in the same period last year. That’s according to the German federal government, which also said that during deportations, the degree of physical resistance by asylum-seekers and the resulting use of force by the police are on the rise.
In the first half of this year, 11,496 people were deported from Germany, — a slight drop from the same period in 2018 (12,261 cases). That’s according to an answer by Germany’s federal government to a parliamentary inquiry by Germany’s left-wing party Die Linke.
The government said the main destination countries were Italy, Serbia, Georgia and France. In terms of nationalities, Albanians, Serbs, Russians, Georgians and Nigerians were the most affected.
Moreover, close to 7,000 people seeking protection were rejected at German borders or denied entry during the same period, according to the government.
An additional 1,525 people were expelled after they had entered Germany in an irregular manner.
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In the first six months of this year, Germany transferred 4,215 asylum seekers back to other European Union member state under the Dublin Regulation, which mandates that the EU country where the asylum-seeker had first entered the bloc is responsible for examining the asylum application.
Die Linke lawmaker Ulla Jelpke demanded that deportations to countries with “war, misery and oppression must finally stop.” Instead of brutally removing people from Germany, Jelpke said, one needed to effectively address the root causes for migration.
A quarter million obliged to leave
As at 30 June, nearly 250,000 people obliged to leave the country were still in Germany, according to the central register of foreign nationals (“Ausländerzentralregister,” or AZR).
However, the status of some 191,000 of them is a temporary suspension of removal (“Duldung”) , meaning their deportation isn’t possible due to humanitarian or technical reasons.
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Often, deportations are not carried out as planned. According to the government, in more than 13,000 cases, deportations were cancelled before the handover to the police and in slightly over 2,000 cases, they failed after the handover in the first half of 2019.
Growing degree of resistance and force
Another parliamentary inquiry by Die Linke revealed that deportations entail a growing degree of resistance and physical force: With 71 federal police officers reportedly injured last year, German police have faced increased physical resistance while carrying out deportations.
Police, in turn, are responding with increased force despite the number of deportations remaining almost constant. This has sparked criticism from lawmakers and rights groups.
Emergency personnel used means of violence in 1,060 cases during the first half of this year. In the same period, meanwhile, close to 7,000 people left Germany voluntarily (“voluntary return,” or “freiwillige Rückkehr”) with financial support.
Aforementioned politician Jelpke of Die Linke said she finds it “intolerable” that more physical force is used against desperate people “to send them back to miserable conditions in their home countries or to transit countries.” There are many shocking reports about brutal deportations, she added.
© InfoMigrants /With material from KNA
