Germany pays foreign embassies to interview candidates for deportation

More than 250,000 people are thought to be living in the country without legal status

Areas across Germany, including Frankfurt (pictured), are inviting those with no legal status to attend embassy hearings to be deported. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach

Germany is recruiting embassies to interview candidates for deportation as more than 250,000 people have been identified as living in the country illegally.

In a bid to speed up the process, the government is paying foreign embassies to interview people without legal status for potential deportation.

Those in accommodation for displaced people are receiving letters inviting them to attend hearings at the embassy attached to the nation from which the German government deems them to come.

Opposition parties said the hearings are "non-transparent" and an infringement of human rights.

Last year, hundreds of people from African countries were summoned to attend such interviews, with 1,100 people from Nigeria, 146 from Gambia, 370 from Ghana and 126 from Guinea.

"Every one of these ominous summonses is one too many," the Left party's Ulla Jelpke told German broadcaster Deutsche Welle.

"The proceedings are non-transparent and those affected have repeatedly reported infringements of their rights."

Ms Jelpke said criteria used to determine countries of origin were unclear and she had heard of cases where nationals from Sierra Leone were deported to Nigeria.

The German Council on Foreign Relations estimates that in 2020 there were about 250,000 people living in Germany without legal residency status.

German officials said people's countries of origin shared responsibility for ensuring that they are returned if not permitted to remain.

"Hearings are an essential means for determining the nationality of persons obliged to leave the country," an interior ministry representative said.

"Travel documents can only be issued once their nationality has been established. Hearings like these have been conducted on a legal basis in Germany for years and their usefulness is proven.

"People are only positively identified if those conducting the hearing are convinced that they are indeed citizens of their country. People under obligation to leave the country are also free to bring in a legal adviser."

In 2019, Germany deported more than 22,000 people.