Germany targets foreign gang criminals in deportation drive

Migrants with links to underworld could be deported even without a conviction

A German police officer checks a car at a border crossing point between Germany and Austria in Walserberg, Germany. EPA

Germany on Wednesday launched a campaign to deport foreign criminals as it told rejected asylum seekers they “must leave our country”.

A bill agreed by Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s cabinet would give Germany the power to expel gang members if they have proven criminal links – even if they personally have no convictions.

Deporting people smugglers will be a particular focus, with courts to be told that a prison sentence of a year or more for trafficking should weigh particularly heavily in deportation cases.

However, anyone without a permit to stay in Germany could face deportation, with mandatory notice periods to be reduced under the 76-page draft legislation.

The government could also get new powers to search migrant accommodation and hold people in pre-deportation custody for up to 28 days rather than 10, as it answers calls to ease the strain on migrant accommodation in Germany.

Interior Minister Nancy Faeser will visit Morocco next week as she lines up potential deals with countries to receive migrants. Talks with Kenya, Colombia, Moldova, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan are also under way.

“Anyone who has no right to stay must leave our country,” Ms Faeser told a press conference as she unveiled the bill on Wednesday.

She said a deportation drive would increase social acceptance of immigration, as the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) enjoys a bounce in the polls. Local authorities have piled pressure on ministers to reduce numbers.

The package “is necessary so that we can continue to meet our humanitarian responsibility to people we have to protect from war and terrorism” such as 1.1 million refugees from Ukraine, Ms Faeser said.

“In order to protect the fundamental right to asylum, we have to clearly limit irregular migration.”

Ms Faeser also called for longer prison sentences for smugglers involved in violence, after a deadly crash this month in which seven people from Syria and Turkey were killed when their van overturned near the Austrian border.

The criminal gang rules could be used against foreign nationals with links to the underworld. Many of the clans under investigation have ancestral links to Turkey or Lebanon, although some members are German citizens.

Five members of the Remmo clan, which has roots in Lebanon, were convicted in May over the spectacular Green Vault robbery of priceless 18th-century jewels four years ago.

The deportation bill will need approval from Germany’s parliament, where there has been back bench dissent from members of Mr Scholz’s coalition. The chancellor was accused of adopting right-wing rhetoric by saying “we have to deport people more often and faster”.

Activists have also complained that children could grow up in a permanent “climate of fear” that their family would be deported. There are some protections for families with children aged 12 or under in the proposals.

“Children and young people could in future be dragged out of their beds at night without prior warning by police,” said Sophia Eckert, a spokeswoman for the children’s rights group Terre des Hommes.

Ministers tout the bill as part of a package which also includes measures more favourable to migrants, such as laws to attract skilled workers and shorten the waiting time for a German passport.

The number of people requesting asylum for the first time was up nearly 80 per cent in the first seven months of the year. Federal police say there were 70,753 cases of people entering the country illegally from January to August.