Afghan asylum-seeker returns to Germany
August 13, 2018
An asylum-seeker who was wrongfully deported from Germany to Afghanistan was flown back to Berlin on Sunday, according to the federal police.
His case was the latest in a series of deportation mishaps in Germany.
The 20-year-old Afghan man was one of 69 people deported on a charter flight from Munich at the start of July. The man, whose initial asylum request was rejected in April 2017, had been waiting on a decision on his appeal before an administrative court in the German town of Greifswald, and should not legally have been deported.
His case came to light two weeks after the deportation. The Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) has admitted there was a "procedural error."
"I'm happy to be back in Germany. I hope I may stay here, and I thank you for your great support," the man, identified under Germany's privacy laws only as Nasibullah S., told Norddeutscher Rundfunk shortly after his arrival at Berlin's Tegel Airport.
Other recent cases of wrongful deportation
The accused bin Laden body guard
Islamist Sami A. was deported to his native Tunisia in July after nearly two decades in Germany. He was accused of once being a bodyguard to Osama bin Laden. But German law forbids deportation to countries where people may face torture or abuse. A faxed order blocking his deportation was overlooked and he was sent to Tunisia where authorities refused to send him back. On Monday, however, the Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger reported authorities had issued a re-entry ban on the Tunisian. The responsible immigration office in Bochum reportedly issued a tender to block European Schengen states from granting entry to the man on security grounds.
Read more: Tunisians, Germans split over deportation of suspected bin Laden bodyguard
The Ukrainian carer
Ukrainian aged-carer Svitlana K. and her family from the war-ridden city of Donetsk were deported in July. But a judge later overturned this ruling on the basis that she was midway through a training course on aged-care. Germany is facing a drastic shortage of carers.
Read more: 'Who will look after us?' — Germany's ailing elderly care system
The Chinese Uighur
In April, a 22-year-old asylum-seeker from China was wrongfully deported after a faxed court ruling failed to reach local authorities in Bavaria. His lawyer later said he had not heard from his client since his deportation. A member of the mostly Muslim Uighur minority, he faces cultural and religious repression.
Read more: Germany expels Uighur asylum seeker to China 'in error'
The Afghan soldier
In December, a 24-year-old Afghan identified as Haschmatullah F. was brought back to Germany after being wrongfully deported three months earlier. He said he was threatened by the Taliban and almost killed because he worked with the Americans as a soldier. On his return, a court granted him a three-year residence permit and permission to work in Germany.
aw/cmk (dpa, AFP, Reuters, AP, epd)