2024-09-24 05:02:36
In addition to border controls, the federal government wants to make greater use of deportation detention in order to turn back refugees more quickly. One expert criticizes that this is not so easy – and is also not effective.
Since Monday, the Federal Police have been carrying out random checks on travelers at all German borders. The aim is to limit irregular migration. However, the border controls are only the first step that the Federal Government has announced. The second step is more detention pending deportation. This should enable procedures for refugees, for whom other EU countries are actually responsible under the Dublin rules, to be completed more quickly.
But is that even possible? And is it effective? Frank Gockel is an expert on these questions. He is co-chairman of the Federal Association for the Support of People in Deportation Detention (BUMAH). He regularly visits and advises people who are in German deportation prisons.
t-online: Mr. Gockel, the federal government wants to speed up the process of rejecting Dublin refugees. To do this, it wants to make greater use of deportation detention to prevent cases like that of the attacker in Solingen. He escaped deportation because he could not be found on the day of his deportation. What do you think of this announcement?
Frank Gockel: This is not as easy to implement as the coalition would like. The Dublin system only allows for deportation detention if there is a risk of flight. This must be examined and proven on an individual basis. For example, the person must not be found on the day of an announced deportation or must not be in their accommodation for three days in a row. Without such an established risk of flight, detention in the Dublin area is not possible at all.
So the authorities could not simply arrest all refugees who cross the border from another EU country for “illegal entry”?
As much as many politicians seem to want this at the moment, no, it won’t work that way. And it wouldn’t be productive either.
The concept of deportation detention is unknown to many. How many people are currently in deportation detention in Germany?
That is impossible to say. There are no statistical surveys on this at the federal level. It is a matter for the federal states; some collect figures, others do not. Deportation detention is a black box – this is something that is very carefully considered.
Frank Gockel, 57 years old, has been supporting people in deportation detention in North Rhine-Westphalia for years through the association “Help for people in deportation detention Büren”. He is now also co-chair of the Federal Association for the Support of People in Deportation Detention (BUMAH), which sees it as its task to give deportation detainees a voice and visibility.
What are the conditions for these people?
They must not be treated like criminals – because they are not criminals. The European Court of Justice has already ruled this several times. In Germany, however, there is hardly any difference between deportation detention and prison detention. We assume that the Federal Court of Justice will demand very major changes with regard to Germany from the autumn. Some prisons may also have to close.
Politicians are already often saying: There is not enough space, we need more detention places for deportees.
This is pure populism. We have 13 prisons for deportation detention in Germany. And there are free places in almost all of them, some are not even close to being full.
Because it is not so easy to take people into deportation detention. The hurdles are high – and the system is very complicated. There are not only die Deportation detention, there is preparatory detention, extended preparatory detention, preventive detention, Dublin transfer detention, cooperation detention, cooperation detention 2, detention for rejection…
Nevertheless, why do you think that increased detention pending deportation will not increase the number of deportations?
More detention pending deportation will probably not lead to more deportations. Bavaria, for example, is the best positioned of the federal states with three detention facilities pending deportation. Nevertheless, Bavaria is not more successful in deporting refugees than other states, calculated as a percentage of the number of refugees.
Some transfers fail because the people cannot be found at home. That is true. In these cases, detention pending deportation could help. But most often, transfers fail much earlier for a different reason: because the EU countries actually responsible do not want to take them back and the German authorities simply cannot get a transfer date.