Around 330,000 people are registered for expellation in Germany. However, only ten per cent of them are still in the country.
The number of expellations in Germany has levelled off at a uniform level. This is according to an answer from the federal government to a minor interpellation from the Die Linke group, which is available to “nd”. In the first half of 2024, 4321 people were expelled, most of whom came from Albania, Georgia, Turkey, Moldova and Algeria. In 2023 as a whole, there were 8019 expellations. Between 2020 and 2022, the number fluctuated between 7081 and 8257 per year.
By far the majority of those affected are male. The measure is most frequently imposed on the 36 to 60 age group. However, adolescents and children are also expelled. In the first half of 2024, this concerned 47 minors and 382 adolescents. Around a quarter of all orders came from Baden-Württemberg, followed by Bavaria (672) and North Rhine-Westphalia (641).
Expulsion with a re-entry ban is a possible measure under immigration law. As an official decision, it terminates legal residence and obliges the person to leave the country. A final conviction for a criminal offence is not absolutely necessary; approval or advertising for serious crimes may be sufficient. A case-by-case assessment is carried out beforehand, taking into account the length of stay and family ties in Germany, for example.
If the person concerned does not leave Germany, they are threatened with deportation as a coercive measure. In some cases, however, they are granted a temporary or permanent right of residence or a tolerated stay due to practical or legal obstacles.
As of 30 June 2024, around 330,000 people were registered in the Central Register of Foreigners with an expulsion order, 6821 of whom were registered as “not enforceable”. However, only around 35,000 of those affected are actually in Germany. This is because most of them have either left the country long ago or have been deported.
The high number of people stored can be explained by the cancellation periods. Their data record can be kept for up to ten years. In the event of deportation, the information is not deleted until the person concerned is 90 years old.
The enquiry about the expulsions comes from the Left Party politician Clara Bünger. The refugee policy spokesperson for the parliamentary group criticises the fact that the expulsion law has been tightened several times in recent years and that even relatively minor offences can now lead to an expulsion. After 7 October, this increasingly affects people who are accused of expressing sympathy for Hamas during the Gaza war.
“It is the task of the criminal justice system to solve criminal offences and bring the perpetrators to justice,” says Bünger to “nd”. “Crime is almost always a product of the society in which it occurs. That’s why it must be dealt with there,” demands the Left Party MP. Deportations, on the other hand, follow an absurd “out of sight, out of mind” logic.
Published in German in „nd“.
Image: In the vast majority of cases, people registered as “expelled” have long since left the country. Nevertheless, their data continues to be stored (Leif Christoph Gottwald on Unsplash).
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