DOn Thursday the Bundestag passed a law for a more restrictive practice in the deportation of foreigners without the right to remain. With the votes of the coalition of SPD, Greens and FDP, Parliament voted for the package, which contains a number of regulations that are intended to prevent rejected asylum seekers from avoiding forced repatriation. In addition, the penalties for smuggling will be significantly increased.
The Union and AfD voted against the law because they did not go far enough. However, some members of the Green Party, for whom the tightening goes too far, also voted no in the vote.
Anyone who does not have the right to remain in Germany will have to leave the country again, said Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD). The law will “effectively prevent people from going into hiding and thwarting deportation,” she said.
Exceptions for families with children
One of the tougher deportation rules is the extension of detention on departure from ten to 28 days. In addition, the police will in future be allowed to enter rooms other than those of the person concerned in order to arrest a person who lives in shared accommodation and is to be deported. Such actions should increasingly be allowed at night and deportations should no longer be announced. An exception applies to families with children up to the age of twelve.
After arguments in the traffic light coalition, some points in the law were watered down shortly before it was passed. The law now stipulates that minors should generally not be taken into custody pending deportation or deportation. In addition, those affected must be provided with a public defender for both cases.
The latest changes also made it clear that sea rescue should not be criminalized by tightening the smuggling laws. Refugee aid organizations still see gaps and fear punishment if they rescue minors. The representative of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD) for refugee issues, Christian Stäblein, called on the traffic light coalition to correct the law. “It would be outrageous if the sea rescue of underage refugees could become a criminal offense,” explained the Berlin bishop.
Asylum seekers are allowed to work earlier
Faeser, however, said that they had “ensured that sea rescue is not criminalized.” Green right-wing politician Helge Limburg said that if it turns out that there are still gaps in the area of rescuing minors, “there will be clarification.”
The law also allows asylum seekers to be able to start work after six months instead of the current nine months. The duration for receiving benefits for asylum seekers, which are significantly below the normal basic security, will be extended from one and a half to three years.
Criticism of the tightening came only from left-wing MP Clara Bünger in the Bundestag debate. The law contains massive interference with fundamental rights and civil liberties, said Bünger, who only had a good minute to speak due to the Left's loss of parliamentary group status.
At the end of last year, according to the Federal Ministry of the Interior, around 243,000 people were registered as having to leave the country, although the vast majority of them – around 194,000 people – had a tolerated stay and therefore cannot be deported. According to the Federal Ministry of the Interior, there were 16,430 deportations in 2023. That was 27 percent more than in the previous year. Before the corona pandemic, the number of deportations per year was more than 20,000.
#Bundestag #approves #law #simplified #deportations
