The Bundestag, Germany’s lower house of federal parliament, last week approved a bill tightening deportation conditions as thousands of citizens protest in the streets against the far right.
The protests followed the publication of a journalistic investigation into alleged plans to expel foreigners from the country, drawn up at a meeting organized by influential far-right figures and involving members of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party. ., ranked second in German polls.
The demonstrations, which attracted hundreds of thousands of people across Germany, received the support of members of the German government, namely German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Foreign Minister Annalena Bärbock.
Here are questions and answers about what’s at stake with the so-called Repatriation Improvement Act:
What are the main provisions of the adopted law?
Police now have new powers to search for people intending to leave the country – for example, they can search hostel rooms, not just the room of the person being deported.
This was a common obstacle for authorities in cases of failed deportations due to the inability to find the people involved. Lack of cooperation from migrants, who may wish not to provide identification documents knowing that doing so may complicate repatriation, may also delay or complicate the process.
On the other hand, the maximum length of pre-deportation detention has been increased from 10 to 28 days to give the authorities more time to arrange the deportation.
The law imposes stricter penalties for trafficking, regardless of whether travel assistance is paid or not.
In addition, asylum seekers will now be able to start working in six months instead of the current nine months. The duration of benefits will be increased from one and a half to three years.
The rule also stipulates that anti-Semitic hate crimes can be considered “serious” for deportation purposes. The same goes for racism, xenophobia, gender or sexual orientation.
What does the law say about non-governmental organizations (NGOs)?
The diploma contains provisions limiting processes to assistance on land, which the government says protects non-governmental organizations helping migrants at sea.
What impact will the law have?
The government estimates the new law will affect about 50,000 people and lead to 600 additional expulsions a year.
The number of deportations in 2023 increased to 16,430, up about 27% on the previous year, as a result of tougher enforcement of existing policies, the Home Secretary said.
How did the parties vote?
The law was approved by the votes of a coalition formed by the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), the Free Democratic Party (FDP) and the Greens.
Both the AfD and the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) voted against it because they believed the law should be tougher.
What was the government’s position on this law?
“We want people who have no right to remain in our country to be forced to leave as quickly as possible,” Interior Secretary Nancy Feiser said of the bill, which aims to make removals “faster and more effective.” .
The minister, who belongs to Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s SPD, guaranteed: “Those fleeing war and terrorism can count on our support.”
How many asylum applications were filed in 2023?
Germany received 352,000 asylum applications last year, up 51% from 2022.
However, these figures are far from the peak of the migration crisis of 2015–2017, when 722 thousand people asked for asylum.
Additionally, the country has hosted approximately 1.1 million Ukrainian refugees since the Russian invasion in February 2022.
What was the reaction to the law?
Human rights groups criticized the new provisions, and the German Bar Association said they were not “proportionate.”
“We are horrified that people fleeing for their lives and those offering them humanitarian assistance could face imprisonment,” said sea rescue association SOS Humanity.
The NGO said the German government “broke promises made in the coalition agreement not to interfere with the search and rescue of civilians.” The NGO also says the new law could subject its volunteers to prison in some circumstances.
The petition, which collected 136,000 signatures, challenged the “arrest for the purpose of rescuing civilians at sea.”
Medical Volunteers International, another organization that protested on the day the law was passed, said: “The European Union continues to close down and massively restrict access to human rights. Criminalizing NGOs that work in the field of human rights is a crime. terrible! Health is a human right and should be unconditionally available to all people, regardless of where they live or their status.”
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
I am Michael Melvin, an experienced news writer with a passion for uncovering stories and bringing them to the public. I have been working in the news industry for over five years now, and my work has been published on multiple websites. As an author at 24 News Reporters, I cover world section of current events stories that are both informative and captivating to read.