By the end of September, the federal police in Bavaria had sent back four out of ten migrants who entered irregularly this year. The Munich Federal Police Directorate said officers arrested around 22,400 people during this period. More than 8,100 of them were “rejected, pushed back or deported”. Deportation detention has been ordered for 873 people. Bayerischer Rundfunk initially reported on the numbers.
Migrants who entered irregularly include all people who come to Germany without appropriate permission such as identification documents, visas or residence permits. Unauthorized entry can result in fines or imprisonment. According to the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees, if asylum applications are successful, such criminal proceedings are generally discontinued.
The proportion of migrants in Bavaria whose entry was prevented before a possible asylum procedure or whose stay in Germany was ended is around 40 percent, said a spokesman for the Federal Police Directorate. In the same period last year, this rate was 58 percent.
How high this proportion is depends on many factors, said the spokesman. When deciding on rejections, the question is always how plausibly migrants can demonstrate that they are seeking protection in Germany as asylum seekers. Anyone who can do this is usually forwarded to the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees, immigration authorities or youth welfare offices.
But if people are clearly not looking for such protection, the federal police can turn them back at the border – since 2015 at the border with Austria, and in a similar way since mid-October at the border with the Czech Republic. At Munich Airport, the federal police are also allowed to turn back migrants who land at the state capital’s airport from outside the borders of the Schengen Agreement.
The number of migrants picked up by the federal police in Bavaria without an entry permit has recently increased – from around 19,000 from January to the end of September 2022 to around 22,400 in the same period of the current year. Those affected most often had Turkish nationality. They were followed by Syrian and Afghan citizens.
Federal Office for Migration and Refugees on irregular migration
