Roderich Kiesewetter, the chairman of the Union’s foreign affairs committee, sees himself confirmed in the Foreign Ministry’s report on the security situation in Syria in his position regarding possible deportations to the country. „Syria in itself is neither a free country nor the rule of law secured,“ said Kiesewetter ZEIT ONLINE. It is very difficult for German authorities to assess which local groups or which religious group can be brought back to Syria where local conditions are concerned. „You can not say flat rate, deportations are basically possible,“ said Kiesewetter. As long as the security situation does not change, that should be viewed very critically.
In a new report on the situation in Syria, the Federal Foreign Office states that no part of the country has comprehensive, long-term and reliable protection for persecuted persons. For returnees, the risk remains high. Refugees threatened reprisals of the government-loyal authorities and parts of the population, it says in the closed document from which the Süddeutsche Zeitung, NDR, WDR and the editorial network Germany cite.
The Baden-Württemberg Interior Minister Thomas Strobl (CDU) sees the situation, however, differently than his colleague Kiesewetter. No one understood why people who endangered security in Germany could not be deported to Syria, he said to Heilbronner Stimme and Mannheimer Morgen.
„Now it’s up to Seehofer“
Strobl called on Interior Minister Horst Seehofer (CSU) to take action in the matter. „Now it is up to the Federal Ministry of the Interior to say what conclusions the Confederation draws from this,“ he said with a view to the management report.
However, Seehofer does not want to speak out before the Conference of Interior Ministers in the coming week on this issue, said a spokesman for the Interior Ministry ZEIT ONLINE. After a deportation ban, which lasts more than three months, the federal states must decide according to the Residence Act in agreement with the Federal Ministry of the Interior. The Conference of Interior Ministers takes its decisions in principle unanimously. A decision is necessary as the current deportation ban expires at the end of December 2018.
From the Union, there have been voices that have been advocated at least to allow the deportation of serious offenders to Syria. This had also demanded Bavaria’s Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann (CSU) in the past week, but with the addition „as soon as the situation permits“.
„Certain regions of Syria could be secure enough in the foreseeable future to deport rejected asylum-seekers who had fallen victim to criminal sanctions,“ said CDU General Secretary Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer. Kramp-Karrenbauer is currently applying for the succession of Angela Merkel as CDU party chairman.
