By: Bakary Ceesay, in Germany
Yahya Moro Yapha, Germany based Gambian social and human rights advocate, has strongly criticized German Cabinet approved legislation in October that is intended to ease deportations of unsuccessful asylum-seekers.
The German Cabinet approved legislation in October that is intended to ease deportations of unsuccessful asylum-seekers as Chancellor Olaf Scholz seeks to defuse migration as a political problem.
The draft legislation, which would need parliamentary approval to take effect, foresees increasing the maximum length of pre-deportation custody from 10 days to 28 and specifically facilitating the deportation of people who are members of a criminal organization.
It also would authorize residential searches for documentation that enables officials to firmly establish a person’s identity, as well as remove authorities’ obligation to give advance notice of deportations in some cases.
Yapha, the diaspora mentor at Migration Media Network, described the approved cabinet plan to speed up deportation of unsuccessful asylum seekers as contradictory and double standards as the amount of capital and resources put into these practices puts aside the inhumane practice and the psychological damage it causes.
He explained that 60 people were deported with two costly charter flights specifically to Gambia, hundreds of thousands of the same young people knowing or unknowing takes all the risks and measures to arrive on European soil, most of whom want to come to Germany as they represent the economic potential for those migrants who one way or another are drawn into the same system in which those who arrive before them are trapped and are the victims of the so-called ‘tougher migration policy’.
He pointed out that this change nothing nor does it provide a long term solution for those facing the same dilemma of deportation.
He stressed that smart migration policies will offer smart solutions to the ongoing migration crisis if they are approached and managed intelligently.
Germany’s shelters for migrants and refugees have been filling up in recent months as significant numbers of asylum-seekers add to more than 1 million Ukrainians who have arrived since the start of Russia’s war in their homeland.
Scholz has signaled a new desire to take charge of migration issues following regional elections on Oct. 8 in which voters punished his quarrelsome three-party coalition.
Interior Minister Nancy Faeser first announced the new legislation two weeks ago. Scholz said last week that Germany needs to start deporting “on a large scale” migrants who aren’t entitled to stay.
“To protect the fundamental right to asylum, we must significantly limit irregular migration,” Faeser said Wednesday. “Those who have no right to stay must leave our country again.”
She said Germany has deported about 27% more people this year so far than a year earlier, “but there is a significant need for action.”
The majority of rejected asylum-seekers in Germany still have at least temporary permission to stay for reasons that can include illness, a child with residency status or a lack of ID.
It remains to be seen how much difference the new rules will make. Deportations can fail for a variety of reasons, including those the legislation addresses but also a lack of cooperation by migrants’ home countries. Germany is trying to strike agreements with various nations to address that problem while also creating opportunities for legal immigration.
Faeser said she also wants to increase the minimum and maximum sentences for people who smuggle migrants, and hopes the Cabinet can approve those changes in early November.
She said she plans to extend by at least 20 days checks on Germany’s borders with Poland, the Czech Republic and Switzerland.
