BERLIN (dpa-AFX) – The federal and state interior ministers want to discuss new measures for better enforcement of the obligation to leave the country at their autumn conference next week. Among other things, there is a proposal on the table that envisages ordering the detention of a foreigner who is legally obliged to leave the country even in the absence of the person concerned if he or she has gone into hiding.
The suspect went into hiding for a time
The proposed resolution comes from Lower Saxony, where the case of a 16-year-old caused great concern in the summer. An Iraqi who was required to leave the country and who had previously received psychiatric treatment is said to have pushed the Ukrainian-born teenager against a freight train passing through at Friedland train station, thereby killing her. According to European asylum rules, the 31-year-old should actually have been brought from Germany to Lithuania months before the crime.
Couldn’t be found before deportation
Lower Saxony’s Interior Minister, Daniela Behrens (SPD), said that the terrible act at Friedland train station had once again highlighted the problems of the so-called Dublin system. This stipulates that asylum seekers return to the country responsible for their procedure, if necessary by force. Behrens criticized that the process was too complicated and too many authorities were involved. The result is often “that people who are no longer supposed to be here stay in Germany for years and sometimes go into hiding until the asylum procedure is transferred to Germany’s responsibility.”
Arrangement in absentia
One problem is that, according to the current legal situation, arrest warrants can only be applied for if the person concerned is present. This leads to delays and endangers the enforcement of the right of residence. “We want to enable preparatory judicial orders even when people are absent,” said the minister.
From the Federal Ministry of the Interior It is said that discussions are being held with the states about the question of whether a corresponding change in the law would make sense. When asked, a spokeswoman said: “In principle, the Federal Ministry of the Interior undertakes and supports measures that lead to an increase in the number of deportations.”
Solingen attacker was supposed to go to Bulgaria
A Syrian who killed three people at a city festival in Solingen in August 2024 should have been returned to Bulgaria a year before the attack because the country was responsible for his asylum procedure. Also under the influence of this Islamist attack, two Dublin departure centers were set up in Hamburg and Brandenburg in March. The central accommodation is intended to create the conditions for faster procedures.
According to the federal government, Germany submitted 20,574 takeover requests in the first half of this year under the Dublin rules. They agreed in 14,294 cases. However, in the end there were only 3,109 transfers. Improving the procedure is part of the upcoming reform of the Common European Asylum Law./abc/DP/zb