Germany considers declaring at most 10 nations safe for deportation

Germany is considering adding at most 10 countries to a list of so-called safe countries of origin, a policy meaning that asylum seekers from those countries have little chance of avoiding deportation from Germany.

Less than 5 percent of asylum seekers from Gambia, Pakistan, Morocco, Armenia, Algeria, Georgia, India, Moldova and the Ivory Coast regularly achieve recognition of their claims, a spokesman told journalists on Wednesday. 

Tunisia does not actually fall into this group because there are relatively few asylum seekers from there. Nevertheless, the governing coalition wants to put the country on the list. 

These countries are potentially eligible to be included in the list agreed in the coalition deal between the conservatives of Chancellor Angela Merkel's centre-right bloc and the Social Democrats (SPD), which had a harder line on migration than their previous agreement.

People from safe countries of origin can be deported from Germany more easily and the asylum process speeded up. The current list includes EU members states and a handful of other countries, including Albania, Ghana, Senegal and members of the former Yugoslavia not currently in the EU.

The recognition rate includes those seeking asylum who receive either political asylum, protection under the Geneva Refugee Convention or, as usually the case with civil war refugees, subsidiary protection. Other asylum seekers may still stay for medical reasons, for example, but they are not counted in the recognition rate.

The coalition between Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU), its Bavaria-only sister Christian Social Union (CSU) party and the centre-left SPD had agreed that, besides Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia, "other states with a regular recognition rate below 5 percent should be designated as safe countries of origin."

According to the spokesperson, the ministry bases this on the quota of the past three years. In addition, only countries among the 30 main countries of origin of asylum seekers would be considered. The reason for this is that, when there are a small number of cases, a quota is not meaningful.  

The rules from the coalition agreement aren't the only ones taken into consideration when making the decision on lists. The ministry also refers to the Federal Constitutional Court as well as to EU law.

"Before classifying a state as a safe country of origin, the federal government, after careful consideration of the legal situation, application of the law and general political conditions, has to form an overall assessment of the circumstances that are significant for persecution in the respective state," the spokesman explained. 

This means that not every one of the nine countries must pass this test. Despite Germany's recent efforts to deport them, the number of people who describe themselves as Salafists – followers of an extremely conservative form of Sunni Islam – in the country has not decreased.

At the beginning of February, there were 446 Islamists whom security officials believe could commit "serious criminal offences", according to information obtained by journalists.

A year earlier, the Federal Criminal Police Office had classified some 760 people as a security risk, though only about half of them were in Germany. The rest were abroad.

A spokesman for the Interior Ministry said 52 foreigners estimated to be on the Islamist terrorist or extremist spectrum were deported in 2018 nationwide. That number was at 57 the year before. However, because the deportation of potential attackers and criminals is handled at the state level, the ministry did not have statistics.    (dpa)