Cooperation is key: Germany’s plan to accelerate deportation of unsuccessful asylum seekers
German Bundestag (Parliament), Picture taken by the blog post author, Terry Martin
by: Terry Martin | SPIA (Science-Policy Interface Agency)
Repatriation of unsuccessful asylum seekers has risen to the top of Germany’s political agenda. Driven by a sharp rise in asylum applications, a growing backlog of deportation orders, and mounting political pressures (mainly but not only from the right), the government has come up with a set of legislative proposals which it says will make repatriation faster and more efficient.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz trailed the proposals in his October 19th address to parliament ahead of an EU summit. The measures “will make it easier to carry out deportations” and lead to a “significant acceleration” of asylum decisions, he insisted. “It will make it easier to deal with those who come repeatedly and try to submit new asylum applications.”
Within a week of the Chancellor’s address, German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser presented a draft law to her fellow cabinet ministers who gave it their immediate approval. The bill will next be presented to parliament where it is expected to pass easily, also with the support of the conservative CDU/CSU opposition group. Chancellor Scholz predicted it would gain full legislative approval before the end of this year.
So how exactly is Germany planning to accelerate repatriation?
The bill contains ten points, articulated (in the government’s own words) as follows:
Custody pending removal: In line with constitutional and European law, the maximum period is to be extended from 10 to 28 days, giving the authorities more time to prepare deportations.
Repatriating criminals Where an individual has been sentenced to more than one year in prison, the interest in removal is particularly strong, which makes deporting them easier.
The deportation of traffickers is to be expedited with particular urgency.
The new plans will also make it much easier to deport members of criminal associations. It will in future be possible to deport these individuals regardless of whether they have been convicted of a specific offence, as long as there is adequate evidence to show that they are a member of a criminal association. This is another tool for use to fight organised crime structures.
The draft law also allows searches of homes for data storage devices and documents, particularly in cases where there is a need to positively identify an individual.
The proposed legislation would also allow authorities to enter other rooms in shared accommodation, under strict conditions in line with the rule of law. In cases involving deportation, this would ensure that the authorities would be able to find the person concerned in shared accommodation.
Violations of entry and residence permits will be considered as sufficient grounds for deportation.
Deportation will no longer be announced for prison inmates who are subject to orders to leave the country. In the same way, the draft law scraps the duty to give one month’s notice of deportation (which was preceded by at least one year’s temporary suspension of the order). Exceptions are made for families with children aged under 12.
The draft laws would also make it possible to enforce bans on entry and residence, orders to live at a specified address, and movement restrictions with immediate effect so as to increase their effectiveness.
The draft law also includes proposals to reduce the burden on agencies dealing with foreign nationals. In specific terms, this means extending the validity of residency permits in asylum cases from three months to six. Residence permits for dependents of those claiming asylum will be extended from one year to three. The draft law also includes provisions for electronic residency permits for foreigners holding settlement permits or permission for long-term residency in the EU.
These measures alone, however, are not expected to have a huge impact on Germany’s deportation numbers. The interior minister responsible for the bill predicts that it will increase deportations by only around five percent. That’s because forced repatriation depends not just on a host country’s resolve to accelerate the process. It requires that countries of origin are willing to work with you and support your policies. Chancellor Scholz emphasized this in his address to the Bundestag. He noted that politicians in many countries often fail in their efforts to repatriate unsuccessful asylum seekers for the same reason: “because they can’t find a way of getting countries of origin and transit countries to cooperate”.
The German government has clearly recognized that repatriating unsuccessful asylum seekers in compliance with international law cannot be achieved without intergovernmental cooperation. Olaf Scholz underlined this in his address to the Bundestag: “The most important thing we need in the future”, the Chancellor insisted, “are migration pacts”. He mentioned this first and foremost in the context of the EU’s evolving migration policy reform. But he went on to stress Germany’s own intention to strike bilateral “migration partnerships” with third countries. “We’ll succeed in doing this”, he said, “because now we have something to offer.” What’s being offered, he suggested, are “legal pathways” for migrants to enter through Germany’s “labor immigration measures”.
Chancellor Scholz claimed that Germany has held talks with the leaders of multiple countries who have indicated a “significant interest and willingness to reach agreements on migration”. He raised expectations that these talks will result in “significant progress and change”. Clearly convinced of this, the German leader says he has asked his country’s diplomats and ministers to “always” address the topic of migration pacts in their conversations with foreign leaders.
The need for multilateral cooperation in return migration policy is a key premise underpinning our research in the GAPs project. We will therefore closely monitor Germany’s efforts to improve cooperation with countries of origin, paying particular attention to how successfully it manages to balance political expediency with respect for human rights.
Contact:
Terry Martin | Founder and director of the Berlin-based communications agency SPIA (Science-Policy Interface Agency) | t.martin@spia-europa.de