More than 6,600 people who are required to leave the country live in Saxony-Anhalt. Only a fraction leaves the country voluntarily or is deported. The Interior Minister calls for regulations to be considered for each individual country.
Magdeburg (dpa/sa) – Last year, 348 people who were required to leave the country were deported in Saxony-Anhalt. According to the Ministry of the Interior, that was 34 percent more than in the previous year. Accordingly, the largest share was held by citizens from North Macedonia, Georgia and Serbia. At the same time, around 360 people who were obliged to leave the country left the country voluntarily. According to the ministry, that was 26 percent more than in 2021. In connection with voluntary departure and return programs, the state of Saxony-Anhalt made around 600,000 euros available from state funds last year. According to the central register of foreigners, there were 6,623 persons required to leave the country as of December 31, 2022.
“Repatriations fail mainly because of substitute passport papers or bureaucratic obstacles on the part of the countries of origin,” Interior Minister Tamara Zieschang (CDU) told the German Press Agency. “The moment a country of origin begins to cooperate and the first deportations are successful, voluntary departures follow in higher numbers. Word gets around in the communities immediately when deportations are successful.”
Zieschang said each country must be looked at individually. The federal repatriation offensive had been announced for a long time. Nothing tangible has happened so far, except that a special representative for migration agreements has been appointed.
If repatriation agreements are concluded, it must also be a matter of using so-called visa leverage. “If a country doesn’t cooperate, its nationals who want to travel to Germany and Europe should find it difficult to obtain visas.” Just recently, the Swedish Presidency identified visa policy as a key instrument for more returns. “I share this assessment,” said the interior minister.
According to the Interior Ministry, more than 5,900 asylum seekers came to Saxony-Anhalt in 2022. They came mainly from Syria, Afghanistan, Turkey, Georgia and Iraq. In 2021, just under 3,000 people who sought asylum came. Since the beginning of Russia’s illegal war of aggression against Ukraine, more than 29,600 war refugees from Ukraine have also been housed in the municipalities of Saxony-Anhalt.