display

Deportations to countries outside of Europe are generally not often successful.

However, the Federal Republic of Germany excludes them across the board in only one state: Syria, which has been devastated by Islamists and the Assad regime, has been subject to a ban on deportation since 2012, which has now been extended nine times.

But that is now over, the responsible Conference of Interior Ministers (IMK) could not agree on a renewed extension at its meeting on Thursday evening, as WELT learned from participants.

This means that the deportation freeze expires at the end of the year.

The state interior ministers of the CDU and CSU did not want to extend the general stop another time, as the Bavarian head of department Joachim Herrmann had announced before the start of the deliberations.

Herrmann is acting spokesman for the Union-led interior departments after Lorenz Caffier (CDU) from Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania recently resigned.

Herrmann emphasized that the vast majority of Syrians in Germany do not even ask about deportation.

It's about the small group of serious criminals and threats.

The population cannot be expected to stay there.

"In individual cases, it must be possible to check again in the future whether they can also be returned to their home country."

display

The Union ministers are doing what some of them have already called for on several occasions: They do not want a general exclusion of deportations, but the possibility of individual cases being examined.

A few weeks ago, Federal Interior Minister Horst Seehofer (CSU) switched to this course.

The SPD interior ministers, however, wanted to extend the deportation freeze.

But because the principle of unanimity applies at the IMK, this was not possible without the consent of the Union ministers.

Almost 100 Islamist threats from Syria

But what does that mean?

Basically, Syrian threats and serious criminals should no longer feel safe from deportation.

The Union wants to make that clear.

For purely practical reasons, however, it seems unlikely that Syrians will actually be brought to their country of origin anytime soon.

The debate is not about the possible repatriation of rejected asylum seekers in general, but about so-called threats or intensive offenders.

A person is classified as a dangerous person if the police trust them to carry out a serious crime at any time.

According to official estimates, almost 100 Islamist threats with Syrian citizenship currently live in Germany.

display

The argument about how to deal with them resurfaced after in a few weeks ago

Dresden a Syrian threat a few days after his release from prison brutally attacked a gay couple with a knife - one of them did not survive the attack.

In view of the high number of threats in Germany - according to the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) there were more than 600 at the beginning of November - the authorities cannot monitor them around the clock.

That is why the interior ministers of the Union are attempting to deport those without German citizenship.

In fact, the SPD interior ministers also rely on deportations.

With a view to Syria, however, they currently see no possibility for returns - and accuse the Union of engaging in a sham discussion.

Lower Saxony's Interior Minister Boris Pistorius is the spokesman for the SPD department heads.

At the end of November he told WELT that the situation in Syria had "not improved, on the contrary".

The regime around ruler Bashar al-Assad murders and tortures.

Lower Saxony would also “immediately deport offenders or threats to Syria - but this is currently impossible”.

The Federal Republic currently has “no diplomatic relations and no German representation in Syria that could initiate repatriation”.

Is there a threat of torture in Syria?

The civil war is over in many areas of the country.

The German embassy in the country is still closed.

Returns would also be problematic because those politicians are still in power who have cracked down on hundreds of thousands of civilians.

display

The situation analysis of the Federal Foreign Office, which was updated for this IMK, forms a basis for the assessment of the situation in Syria.

Konstanz-based international lawyer Daniel Thym has just prepared an analysis for the North Rhine-Westphalian Integration Minister Joachim Stamp (FDP) with a view to repatriations to Syria.

A central statement: In certain regions there is no longer any civil war and theoretically there is the possibility of deportation there.

But, according to Thym: there are currently hardly any returns to be made;

people could also be persecuted there.

Because: It is unclear how Syria would deal with Islamist threats.

Are they at risk of torture or inhuman treatment?

It would have to be diplomatically promised that this is not the case.

Otherwise no judge in the Federal Republic will approve the deportation.

And here lies a crucial point: the German government has so far avoided almost any contact with the Syrian regime around Assad.

He is seen as responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands in the course of the civil war.

An exchange with the regime about returns would amount to a clear diplomatic upgrade.

And so far there is no indication that this is the intention of the black-red federal government.

The price seems too high - even if you want to deport dangerous people.

To make matters worse, returns are particularly difficult for those who are at risk - i.e. those people in whose deportation German society is most interested.

After all, the Assad regime was almost overthrown by the so-called Islamic State (IS) and other Islamist groups - and is now trying with all my might to prevent these forces from re-strengthening.

How great is the threat of terrorism in Germany?

France mourns after the knife attack in the Notre-Dame basilica in Nice.

It was the third attack in France in two months that the authorities attribute to Muslim extremists.

Source: WORLD / Max Hermes

Just because the ban on deportation has been lifted does not mean that in future there will be no careful individual assessment of whether human rights - above all the right to life and physical integrity - are guaranteed.

It is true that endangered persons, serious criminals or even war criminals cannot invoke the Geneva Refugee Convention and its implications in EU asylum law due to exclusion clauses.

So you do not have the right to refugee protection or you may have it withdrawn.

Nevertheless, they cannot be deported if there is a “considerable probability” that they are threatened with death or torture - this is the common interpretation of the European Convention on Human Rights, which the European Court of Human Rights and the national courts use as a guide, such as asylum lawyer Thym in executes his legal opinion.

After the end of the deportation stop, the authorities and judges would also have to decide before a return whether there is a “considerable probability” in a specific individual case.

National and international assessments of the situation, i.e. the findings of the Federal Foreign Office or the EU Asylum Office Easo, serve as the basis for decision-making.

In its latest report from September, the latter assessed the security situation in Syria differently from region to region.

While regions such as Aleppo and Idlib are still generally considered unsafe, this no longer applies to Damascus, for example.

There as well as in the coastal region of Tartus there is now only a low level of arbitrary violence.

However, according to the report - which is much more comprehensive and detailed than the Federal Foreign Office's assessment of the situation - there is a considerable probability of persecution for several groups even in safe regions, because they are particularly often affected by arbitrary arrests and killings by the security forces.

Such a general danger exists for conscientious objectors, opposition militias, critical journalists and also gays.