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fromClaudia Kabel
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Aid organizations demand the return of the Somali to Hesse and clarification by Interior Minister Peter Beuth (CDU)
Fear is widespread among Somali refugees in Hesse. Young men no longer dare to sleep in their accommodations because they are afraid of being taken. Others no longer dare to go to the immigration office. “It’s bad and dangerous, for fear they won’t let their papers be renewed, and that’s an offense,” says Halima Gutale, integration officer for Pfungstadt in southern Hesse and chairwoman of the Halima association, active for Africa. People are insecure, have sleepless nights and no longer see any point in their efforts to integrate here.
Kamal Jama Mussa confirms that there is great turmoil in the Somali community after the surprising deportation of a young, well-integrated man to Somalia, a country with civil war. The chairman of the Darmstadt association Somali Community Service has received 50 calls from insecure compatriots, many of them with children, after he wrote about Omar F’s deportation on Facebook.
Arrested surprisingly
Omar F. was arrested at the immigration office in Bad Homburg in mid-February. Completely surprising, because the 28-year-old was ordered to have his leave of absence extended, reports Mussa to the Frankfurter Rundschau. That he was then arrested and taken to the deportation prison in Darmstadt, two days later, on February 17th, without any legal assistance, was flown to Mogadishu as “a shock” for his acquaintances, his landlords and his employer, says Mussa .
Omar F. came to Germany almost eight years ago, had a permanent job as a machine operator in a recycling company for three years and lived independently in a rented apartment in Darmstadt. His asylum application had been rejected, but he was still motivated to integrate.
Refugee associations and human rights organizations criticize his deportation as scandalous. “It would only have taken a few weeks until he would have received a secure residence status – the Darmstadt Regional Council used these weeks to arrest him,” writes the Community for All alliance.
“We are appalled that the state of Hesse is now obviously dropping all inhibitions and is the first federal state to regard deportations to Somalia as ‘normal’,” says Timmo Scherenberg, managing director of the Hessian Refugee Council, outraged.
rally
With a demo The Community for All alliance wants to emphasize its demands on Friday, March 12th, starting at 5 p.m. The rally takes place in front of the regional council at Luisenplatz in
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Günter Burkhardt, managing director of Pro Asyl, considers it “completely unacceptable and morally indecent” to “simply deport people to a crisis area”. He told the FR that Omar F’s deportation was a taboo. He criticizes not only the deportation, but also the “attack-like” form in which deportations took place: “Our observation is that the deportations are becoming more and more brutal.” Thousands of people should not be allowed to be frightened. Burkhardt calls on the black-green state government to take responsibility for it. It cannot be deported to a country ruled by terror, famine and natural disasters, which is the second most fragile country in the world, and leaves the decision to the local immigration authorities.
“What politics does black-green actually stand for?” Asks Burkhardt. The Hessian Interior Minister Peter Beuth (CDU) must take responsibility and explain what he knew about it and when he agreed to put people in mortal danger by being deported to Somalia. Burkhardt also calls for the issue to be brought to the Conference of Interior Ministers in June and for a nationwide ban on deportations to Somalia to be obtained. Hessen itself could already impose a three-month ban on deportation. In addition, Omar F. should be brought back. This is also what the working group on Flight, Asylum and Integration Pfungstadt demands in an open letter to the state government.
There have been hardly any deportations to Somalia in recent years. Before 2018, they were actually suspended – not least because passports from Somalia are not recognized, as Pro Asyl reports. Integration officer Gutale reports that in 2019 all people from the East African state began to be registered. Since then, she has feared that there would be deportations. Omar F’s case confirms these fears. Gutale considers his deportation to be a test “to see how people react”.
According to the Interior Ministry, only four Somalis were deported to their home country between 2018 and 2020. Ministry spokesman Marcus Gerngroß announced on request that 601 Somali nationals are required to leave the country. Of these, “some cannot be deported to Somalia, but must be transferred to other countries under the Dublin III Regulation or in a third country procedure”.
Ministry: no influence
When asked why Hessen suddenly deported to Somalia again, the Ministry of the Interior referred to the federal government: “The assessment of whether there are so-called target-state-related obstacles to deportation to certain countries of origin is the responsibility of the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (Bamf) responsible for the asylum procedure and the Administrative courts. “Neither the decisions of the Bamf nor the administrative courts could influence the Hessian authorities, emphasizes Gerngroß. However, they are legally obliged to deport persons who are required to leave the country, provided that there is no reason to tolerate deportation.
The successful integration of a person is obviously not considered a reason for tolerance. However, this contradicts the black-green coalition agreement, in which it is stated that it does not make sense to “send away people whose labor or expertise is urgently needed, who can achieve something and take care of themselves”.
The domestic political spokeswoman for the Greens in the state parliament, Eva Goldbach, informed the FR about this: “The deportation detention was ordered by a court. We do not comment on court decisions, but we assume that the order was lawfully issued. ”They also advocate the creation of an immigration law at the federal level.
According to Halima Gutales, racist, discriminatory laws are the problem: Somali refugees are the only ones whose papers are not recognized except for their deportation. For them there are no support structures and no perspective. “It is not at all wanted that we integrate.”
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