The signing of a migration agreement with India on December 5 has not had any discernible effect on the number of deportations from Germany to India in the first few months. According to a response from the federal government to a question from the Union faction’s spokesman on domestic affairs, Alexander Throm, there were 13 returns to the populous South Asian country from the beginning of December to the end of March.
When the agreement was signed, the federal government announced that there were just over 200,000 Indian nationals living in Germany; the vast majority of them with a regular residence permit. At the same time, more than 5,000 Indian nationals were illegally staying in Germany. As the federal government listed at the request of the CDU MP Throm, 176 people were deported from Germany to India in 2019. In 2022, the authorities counted 52 deportations there.
Only a few Indians are required to leave the country
“As soon as the federal government concludes a migration agreement with India, the number of repatriations to this country decreases,” commented the CDU politician on the data provided by the Federal Ministry of the Interior. Such agreements are “not the panacea that traffic lights have been claiming for months”. It is more important that the federal government increases the pressure on uncooperative states so that they comply with their obligation to take back citizens.
Compared to countries of origin such as Iraq or Serbia, the number of foreigners who are required to leave India is relatively small. In two federal states, however, a relatively large proportion of those who are obliged to leave the country come from India. As can be seen from an earlier government response to a question from the left-wing faction, according to the central register of foreigners, 825 Indian citizens who were required to leave the country were resident in Saxony-Anhalt in 2022, and 976 Indians were registered in Saxony as being required to leave the country.
A total of 12,945 foreigners were deported from Germany last year, slightly more than in 2021, which was still heavily influenced by the Corona travel restrictions. In 2019, before the pandemic began, the number was significantly higher at more than 22,000 deportations.
talks with other countries
The agreement with India is the first comprehensive agreement of its kind. It aims to facilitate the entry of professionals, students and trainees as well as repatriations. It was concluded around two months before Joachim Stamp took office as special representative for migration agreements. As a spokesman for the Federal Ministry of the Interior said when asked, the 2023 budget provides for a total of eleven positions in Bonn and Berlin for the newly created task. The construction of the team will be completed in the coming weeks, it said.
When asked which states the new plenipotentiary was currently negotiating with, the spokesman said Stamp was “in confidential talks with various countries.” In a debate in the Bundestag on refugee policy, SPD MP Gülistan Yüksel said on Friday that Stamp would ensure in future that countries of origin would again accept those who were obliged to leave the country.