Photo Gallery Inconsistent Deportation Policies
An airplane at the Munich airport preparing to fly around 50 refugees whose asylum applications have been rejected back to Afghanistan. After opening its borders just over a year ago to hundreds of thousands of refugees, Germany is now preparing to deport thousands who do not qualify for protection under international law.
Most Germans haven't yet grasped how dramatic the scale of the deportations will be. By the end of 2016, over 207,000 people were technically subject to deportation, although many of those orders to leave have been suspended for myriad reasons.
As Germany heads into a general election, the government wants to show that it is just as capable of being tough toward those who don't qualify for asylum as it can be caring for those who do. Despite a controversy over sending rejected asylum-seekers back to Afghanistan, politicians like Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière are insisting that the practice should continue.
But there are questions about whether all should be deported from a country that actually needs immigrants for its labor force. Afghan national Rhamat Khan fled to Germany in 2010 and claimed the Taliban had killed his father. He learned fluent German and worked as a mason for a construction company. Despite efforts by his employer to halt his deportation, he was still ordered to leave Germany.
Sometimes it's a question of connections. Nader Darabi of Afghanistan had been in Germany for six years when his deportation order came. As he was being driven to the airport, a protestant bishop intervened on his behalf at the state level and he was allowed to stay.
The government told Jawid Youosof and his wife Zarlasht, both from Afghanistan, that they would have to leave Germany. Youosof claimed he had worked as a doctor for the World Health Organization and, as such, was an enemy of the Taliban. The only reason he is still in Germany today is that the state of Schleswig-Holstein has refused to conduct any deportations, despite federal orders, until May. The differences between these cases is indicative of how arbitrary the deportation system can get.
