BERLIN

The German government introduced a draft law on Wednesday to accelerate the deportation of irregular migrants whose asylum applications were declined by the authorities.

Speaking at a news conference in Berlin, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said the proposed legislation will ensure that people without the right to stay in Germany will leave the country quickly.

“We envisage a package of restrictive measures to ensure more and faster deportations. This is necessary so that we can continue to live up to our humanitarian responsibility for the people that we have to protect from war and terror,” she said.

The Social Democrat politician argued that they must significantly limit irregular migration and return economically motivated illegal migrants to their home country, so that the resources can be used for asylum seekers who really need protection in Germany.

“Our new regulations will improve the possibilities for deportations in a large number of cases. This also includes deporting criminals and dangerous persons more consistently and more quickly. This would apply particularly for those involved in organized crime, which we are combating even more resolutely,” she said.

According to the proposed bill, authorities will have legal powers to check the cell phones of irregular migrants to determine their identities. They will be allowed to use all data without restriction.

In refugee accommodations, the police will be allowed to carry out searches and enter almost all rooms while trying to find the person who is to be deported.

For persons who are requested to leave the country, the maximum length of pre-deportation custody will be extended from 10 to 28 days, in order to give the authorities more time to prepare for the deportation.


Meanwhile, human rights organization Pro Asyl heavily criticized the government over its plan to accelerate deportation of rejected asylum seekers.


“The government is sacrificing the fundamental rights of people to the right-wing populist discourse,” Pro Asyl’s spokeswoman Wiebke Judith said in a statement.


“Stricter rules will hardly lead to significantly more people being deported, but they will lead to even more harshness and violations of fundamental rights,” she said.


Judith pointed out that at the moment, every second detention pending deportation is controversial, and they are challenged due to the violation of constitutional rights.

Currently, an estimated 280,000 foreign nationals are staying in Germany without a valid residence permit and are obliged to leave the country.

Nearly 80% of them were allowed to stay so far because authorities could not deport them due to factual or legal reasons.

The number of migrants who could be deported immediately is around 54,000, according to official figures. These include people who are required to leave the country because of an expired visa or residence permit.

An estimated 19,400 rejected asylum seekers are obliged to leave the country immediately.

According to Interior Ministry sources, majority of them arrived from Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Russia, and Nigeria.