Germans protest deportation of Afghan asylum seekers to Kabul

(AhlulBayt News Agency) - Refugee supporters have protested at Munich's airport over Germany's third recent group deportation of rejected asylum seekers to Kabul. Two courts blocked individual expulsions, to Afghanistan, and to Macedonia.

German charities and refugee advocacy groups on Wednesday condemned the German Cabinet's draft legislation intended to accelerate deportations while refugee helpers in Bavaria protested the eviction of 18 rejected Afghan asylum seekers to Kabul.

In a joint statement, 20 of Germany's charitable and refugee organizations accused Chancellor Angela Merkel's grand coalition cabinet of overlooking applicants, especially children and youth, warning that holding them in "first reception centers" would deny them schooling.

Pro Asyl (Pro Asylum), a Frankfurt-based organization backed by churches, described the 15-point legislative packet of Chancellor Angela Merkel's cabinet as a "brutalization" of deportation practices - away from individual assessments and recourse to appeal.

The German Bar Association, comprising 66,000 - or 40 percent - of all German lawyers described the Cabinet's extended detention grounds for persons regarded as potential terrorists or "Gefährder" (dangerous people) as "illogical and unnecessary."

Already, under exceptional circumstances, detention up to 18 months was possible, it said.

Earlier this month, German Chancellor Angela Merkel had called on authorities to accelerate the deportation of rejected refugees.

Germany was flooded with 890,000 asylum seekers, including many Afghans, in 2015. The number of such arrivals decreased to 280,000 in 2016, according to provisional figures released by the German government. Despite the significant decrease, the German government has had to cope with a number of difficulties as a result of the high numbers of the refugees already in the country.

Anti-refugee sentiments have, meanwhile, been on the rise in Germany and there have been increasing demands pressed by German opposition parties to curb the number of refugees.

The Western European country has been carrying out collective deportations based on an agreement with Kabul reached in early October 2016.

Europe has been experiencing an unprecedented influx of refugees over the past almost two years. The asylum seekers have been fleeing conflict-ridden zones in North Africa and the Middle East, particularly Syria.




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