The German parliament’s upper chamber rejected a law that would have allowed quicker deportations to Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria. The decision deals a blow to Chancellor Angela Merkel’s refugee strategy
In the end, the vote wasn’t even close. Led by federal states with left-leaning governing coalitions, a wide majority the Bundesrat shot down a law written by the government and passed by Germany’s lower parliamentary chamber, the Bundestag. It would have declared the Maghreb states – Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria – “safe” and thus allowed for expedited deportations of failed asylum seekers there, like reported by dw.com.
Representatives of the federal government and the conservative-led state of Bavaria argued that the law was needed to prevent people wishing to migrate to Germany for economic reasons from misusing Germany’s asylum legislation. They said only a tiny fraction of asylum applications by people from the three Maghreb states have been approved.
But Dieter Lauinger of Thuringia, which is governed by the Left Party and the Social Democrats, countered that such poor prospects for approval alone didn’t mean that Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria should be considered safe. He added that the number of asylum applications from those countries had dwindled to very low levels – 268 in February 2017.
Refugee organizations, including Pro Asyl and Amnesty International Germany, welcomed the decision.
The Bundesrat is made up of representatives of Germany’s 16 federal states. Its approval of the law was required because the states, and not the federal government, are responsible for carrying out deportations.
This law is now dead, but the issue is certain to resurface throughout the campaign for Germany’s national election in September.
