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Germany deported over 8,000 refugees to other EU countries last year

A refugee family. There has been a significant increase in deportations from Germany to EU countries. Photo: AP
A refugee family. There has been a significant increase in deportations from Germany to EU countries. Photo: AP

Germany has deported a record number of asylum seekers to other EU states, according to newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung.

A total of 8,658 asylum seekers were transferred from Germany to other EU countries between January and November last year — a significant increase from 7,102 refugees deported in 2017.

The bulk of the 8,658 deported refugees were sent to Italy. Only five people were deported to Greece, because Athens rejected the deportation requests for “mostly unsound” reasons, the government said.

Under the EU’s Dublin regulation, asylum seekers automatically become the responsibility of the EU country where they first arrive and register. The system has long been criticized by human rights organisations, who say it keeps people stuck in terrible conditions in refugee camps and hinders them joining family members in other EU countries and beginning the integration process.

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It has also been seen to place unfair stress on poorer Mediterranean countries, like Greece and Italy, who have borne the brunt of refugee arrivals from the Middle East simply as a result of their geographical location.

Germany temporarily suspended the Dublin Agreement in August 2015 at the height of the Syrian refugee crisis — meaning it accepted Syrian asylum seekers even if they had first been registered in another EU state.

However, Horst Seehofer, head of Germany’s Christian Social Union party, has taken a hard line on refugees since he took up his post as interior minister in 2018.

As a partner in the coalition government with Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats, Seehofer spent a big part of last year wrangling with Merkel, and threatening to resign, over her refugee policy. In the end they reached a compromise that allowed for tougher border controls at Germany’s southern border.

The interior ministry upped its encouragement for migrants to return to their country of origin in the run up to Christmas 2018, with a poster campaign in Arabic, Russian, French, and English offering an extra amount of financial assistance for people voluntarily going back to their home countries.

The Federal Office for Migration and Refugees is expected to deliver its 2018 migration report later this week.