Asylum report: Merkel wants to cancel deportation stop to Afghanistan completely

Because of the security situation, Germany had restricted deportations to Afghanistan. Angela Merkel is now pleading for a change of course. The SPD is protesting.

Asylum report: Merkel wants to cancel deportation stop to Afghanistan completely

Rejected asylum seekers from Afghanistan should again be fully deported to ir homeland. German Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) represented this position in her first intergovernmental survey by Bundestag deputies in plenary, calling on findings of Foreign Office, which are listed in a new situation report on country of civil war. "From our point of view, restrictions are no more," Merkel said.

"Volatile security Situation"

The so-called Asylum report, which was made available to Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) last week, administrative courts and national interior authorities, serves as a basis for authorities to decide on asylum applications and Deportation of Afghans – wher and when a protection status applies to an asylum seeker and when or in which region a repatriation of rejected Afghan asylum seekers is possible. The findings are classified as confidential and are not published by federal government for reasons of source protection.

As newspapers of Spark Media group as well as research network from NDR, WDR and south German Zeitung had reported, experts of federal Klein speak of a "still volatile security situation" in Afghanistan and point to "strong regional Differences ": Provinces with active combat are faced with provinces in which situation is" comparatively stable "despite occasional attacks or or violent actions.

Merkel: cabinet does not allow restrictions to apply

According to chancellor, report draws a "qualitatively similar picture as before". That is why, and also because German embassy in Kabul is now "better able to work" after heavy attack in May 2017, cabinet concluded at its weekly meeting that restrictions on repatriation to Afghanistan "no longer Must apply ". The federal Interior Minister Horst Seehofer (CSU) will inform countries of this assessment.

Indeed, since December 2016, Germany has been pushing people back to Afghanistan – but only people who are classified as offenders or endangered or who, according to authorities, stubbornly disguise ir identity. Refugee organisations and church representatives have been demanding for some time that no rejected asylum seekers should be deported to Afghanistan at all. The situation in country is too dangerous, y say, referring in particular to ongoing struggles between central government in Kabul and radical Islamic Taliban, who, according to military information, control more than one seventh of country.

"No reason for a hectic change"

This is why Chancellor's speeches in Bundestag were not only criticised by Greens and Left Party, but also by human rights organisation per asylum. Their managing director Günter Burkhardt criticized that Merkel's statement was neir covered by facts in Afghanistan nor by current situation report. Rar, it was "marked by domestic pressure to deport more." Green boss Annalena Baerbock called Merkel's opinion irresponsible, internal policy spokeswoman of Left party, Ulla Jelpke, spoke of a "new escalation level of people and refugees."

The deputy SPD chief, Ralf Steger, confirmed that Merkel's coalition partner also sees a general deportation stop for Afghans skeptical. He told Berliner Zeitung that, in view of unstable situation, a "careful examination" was needed first. "I see no reason for a hectic change in our restrictive deportation practice."

Date Of Update: 07 June 2018, 12:02
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