The Berlin police union (GdP) is urging tighter control over the whereabouts of individuals required to leave the country and advocating for the use of detention facilities to hold those awaiting deportation.
The call comes amid growing concern about how migrants are managing to avoid deportation by going into hiding across Germany.
Stephan Weh, the state leader of the Berlin GdP, emphasized the need for up-to-date monitoring of the presence of individuals in asylum accommodations to make deportations more efficient. According to him, whistleblowers have been alerting deportation candidates, allowing them to disappear before authorities can act.
The union also highlighted that warnings are often spread via social media and messaging apps, resulting in migrants fleeing their registered addresses before immigration officers track them down.
“If we don’t switch off this early warning system, there will be no more deportations,” he said, according to the dpa news agency.
In addition to enhanced tracking, the union is calling for broader use of deportation detention facilities. Weh, who is due before the Interior Committee of the Berlin House of Representatives on Monday, suggested creating a dedicated center at Berlin’s Brandenburg airport, coupled with greater personnel and logistical support to ensure deportations comply with humanitarian standards.
Recent statistics from the German capital underscore the scale of the problem. According to the Berlin Immigration Office (LEA), while 42 deportations to Moldova were successfully carried out by charter flight at the end of August, 330 had been planned. Similarly, in early September, only 10 out of a planned 35 individuals were deported to Georgia.
The LEA acknowledged that the Berlin police routinely “overbook arrest requests” because many of those earmarked for deportation are not found at their known addresses.
In the first half of 2024, there were 516 deportations in Berlin, with 395 resulting from arrests made at the request of the LEA. This marks a decrease from the same period in 2023 when 635 deportations were carried out after 487 successful arrests.
The union attributes this nearly 19 percent decline in part to the European Football Championship, which diverted police resources during the summer.
