Deported to Pakistan - and arrested again immediately

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Deportation from Germany (archive recording)

The plane took off from Munich late in the evening, and the flight then arrived in Pakistan's capital Islamabad in the early morning. In the midst of the corona crisis, another deportation flight from Germany landed in Pakistan.

33 Pakistanis were on board the machine, as the Federal Criminal Police in Pakistan (FIA) informed the German Press Agency. A month ago, for the first time since the start of the corona pandemic in Germany, there was a major collective deportation, also to Pakistan.

According to the Federal Ministry of the Interior, 24 men have now been deported from Germany, seven from Austria and two from Poland. 143 security officers accompanied the collective deportation to the South Asian country. The federal states of Bavaria, North Rhine-Westphalia and Hesse took part in the deportation.

The number of deportations to non-EU countries has fallen sharply

Some of the 33 men were immediately taken to a detention center in Islamabad. They are accused of violating national migration laws, such as paying smugglers to flee via neighboring Iran. They will be presented to a judge within the next few days. Several relatives were waiting for their relatives outside a police building in Islamabad.

Germany has never officially suspended deportations outside of Europe. The number of deportations to non-EU countries had nevertheless fallen sharply since March, as there were hardly any flights and states with reference to infection protection refused to take back their compatriots.

So far, around 290,000 coronavirus infections have been detected by tests in hospitals in Pakistan. More than two million people have been tested. In the meantime, normality has returned to the country, there are hardly any restrictions as a result of the pandemic. Since June 20, international flights to Pakistan have been allowed again.

as / dpa