German border guards seek powers as part of 'deportation offensive'

Chancellor Olaf Scholz under pressure to curb migration after series of attacks

Last week, police began carrying out entry checks at all of Germany's land borders under a new migration policy. EPA

Border guards in Germany have asked parliament for powers to launch a “deportation offensive” as part of a crackdown on illegal migration.

Federal police say they are often unable to deport migrants stopped at train stations because the law makes them the responsibility of Germany's 16 states. They are typically told to go to asylum centres for processing, which the centre-right opposition in Berlin said leaves them “on the loose”.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz's government is under significant pressure to curb migration after a series of attacks and a far-right resurgence in state elections. Ministers have ordered emergency border checks but critics say their plans do not go far enough.

The opposition Christian Democrats have proposed a law change that would give the federal police, who manage Germany's borders, powers to deport the more than 200,000 people currently believed to lack legal status in Germany. Only a few thousand people have been deported this year despite the talk of a “deportation offensive”, a term used by Mr Scholz's government.

A police union representing border guards wrote in a submission to parliament that it saw a law change as “urgently necessary”. It would put federal authorities “in a position to take a direct part in the deportation offensive”, wrote the union's general secretary Heiko Taggatz.

Even where arrest warrants are out for migrants facing deportation, there is sometimes “no question of actually carrying out the measures to end their stay in Germany, because the federal police lacks the jurisdiction,” said Mr Taggatz.

Finn-Christopher Bruening, a witness for an association of German towns and municipalities, wrote that they “need a breather” from asylum claims to find accommodation and ease pressure on immigration officials. He said there were “regular cases” of tents or sports halls being used to house asylum seekers.

One reason is that many asylum seekers who arrived during the Syrian refugee crisis of 2015 and 2016 are still living in accommodation provided by local authorities, said Mr Bruening. He said an allowance of €7,500 ($8,340) per refugee from the government in Berlin had not kept up with rising costs.

Mr Scholz's plans include withholding social security benefits from migrants whose asylum case should be heard by another EU country. This system failed in the case of an alleged Syrian knifeman who had avoided deportation to Bulgaria before three people were stabbed to death in Solingen in August.

Germany has evaded opposition demands to turn away asylum seekers on the spot, citing legal concerns and that neighbouring countries such as Austria and Poland would be reluctant to take them back in.