Bochum/Düsseldorf (dpa/lnw) – The refugee council of North Rhine-Westphalia has accused the now Green-led Ministry of Escape and Integration of continuing the course of the black-yellow previous government on the subject of deportation. In 2022, 3,118 people were deported from North Rhine-Westphalia, which means a slight increase compared to the previous year (2,903 deportations), as a spokeswoman for the Ministry of Escape and Integration announced on Tuesday. However, the pre-corona level has not yet been reached. The WDR had previously reported on the number of deportations.
The Refugee Council specifically criticized the fact that in 2022, under the Green Minister for Refugees Josefine Paul, who had been in office since the end of June, deportations were carried out about as often as in the previous six months, when the ministry was still led by Joachim Stamp (FDP). In the first half of 2022 there were 1564 deportations from NRW.
Birgit Naujoks from the North Rhine-Westphalia Refugee Council called for the CDU and the Greens to leave behind the “restrictive legacy” of the previous government and exhaust all legal options to stay.
Integration Minister Paul said that they stand for a humanitarian, fair and equal refugee policy. Basically, with a view to the shortage of skilled workers, a modern immigration policy is needed, but at the end of constitutional asylum procedures there could also be an obligation to leave the country. The figures show that we are acting responsibly even after the pandemic-related restrictions have been lifted.
In 2018 and 2019, there were significantly more deportations with 6,603 and 6,359 cases respectively. In 2020 the number fell to 2805 – the cessation of air traffic was also noticeable in the returns. In 2022, as in previous years, most people were deported to Albania or Serbia.
