Federal states in Germany want to put detainees designated for deportation in separate sections of prisons, although it was assessed to be a violation of EU directives by European judges in 2014. The 16 prime ministers of the federal states now want to work "on changes in the field of deportation detention as a part of the adjustment of the EU Return Directive”, Welt reports, citing the decision at their meeting, which took place earlier in December.
In the document, the regional heads expressed their view that the separation requirements need to be relaxed, as far as it prohibits accommodation of convicted criminals and migrants awaiting deportation at the same site, even though they are completely separate. Regional authorities need to go around the EU regulations to do what seems right to them, which the delegation of competence refers to as the European Union’s domain. Thus, the Federal Republic of Germany accepts the EU’s Return Directive as imperative for its own deportation policy.
The directive, which has been in force since 2008, stipulates that detained deportees "must always be kept in special detention centres". By 2014, when EU judges outlawed the practice, deportees in Germany had not been held together with other, criminal, detainees, but had been kept in separate sections of the same prison.
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Following the ban, several separate detention facilities were set up, although they do not meet the demand, according to Welt. The outlet cites the German Interior Ministry, which stated in mid-November that there were only 427 places left for deportees in detention centres in eight federal states, which are just 27 more than 1.5 years ago. Additionally, one-third of them are currently allocated to Bavaria alone.
The outlet also brought forward an analysis made by the security services, concluding that the "current legislation does not provide authorities with the tools to effectively carry out deportations". They fail to follow through with many cases, as a deportee is either not found, or he/she offers resistance at the airport.
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Head of the Federal Police Union Ernst G. Walter told Welt that only those who are already detained can be safely taken out of the country, as thousands avoid their deportation by lying low ahead of the planned repatriation day, which is why problems urgently need to be sorted out.
"Since the urgently needed construction of new detention centres in the countries takes far too long, I expressly welcome the prime ministers’ intention to place deportees in separate sections of regular corrections facilities", he said.
According to the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF), in 2008, when the EU Return Directive was passed, 8,805 foreigners slated for deportation remained in detention. The number had dropped by 2017, when there were only 4,089 such detainees. Incidentally, the number of asylum seekers spiked from 90,000 in 2006-2008 to 1.4 million in 2015-2017. At the same time, fewer than half of the applicants are reported to have received asylum.
