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Federal Minister of the Interior Horst Seehofer: Deportation to hell
Photo:
Tobias Schwarz / AFP
Syria is not a state, it is hell.
Ten years after the outbreak of civil war, dictator Bashar al-Assad is
fighting for power
with rebels
,
militias
and
mercenaries.
His regime continues to arrest, torture and murder critics.
The economy has completely collapsed.
Even in cities like Damascus, citizens have trouble getting bread.
Nevertheless, Federal Interior Minister Horst Seehofer wants to send people back to this hell.
The deportation freeze for Syria expires at the end of the year.
Seehofer announced at the weekend that he wanted to transfer threats and criminals to Syria immediately in the new year.
Concession to populists
The legal situation is clear: If people are threatened with disaster in their homeland, persecution, torture or execution, then they must not be brought back there.
But that is exactly the case in Syria.
The federal government's plan is therefore a farce.
Seehofer is well aware of this.
In an interview with the newspaper, he emphasized in a remarkably vague manner that in future he would »examine every single case« and »enable deportations«.
In practice, however, there will be no returns for the foreseeable future.
The federal government has difficulties deporting rejected asylum seekers to countries such as Tunisia or Morocco.
Germany currently does not even have a diplomatic mission in Syria.
There are no flights into the country.
Seehofer's advance is therefore primarily directed inwards.
It is a concession to populists who believe that criminals should be denied the basic right to asylum.
In doing so, the interior minister is damaging, intentionally or not, one of the cornerstones of the Geneva Refugee Convention, according to which people in danger of death enjoy protection, regardless of what they are guilty of.
Back to death
Seehofer justifies his plan with the wish to deter criminals.
"If we don't do that, it does mean that you can do anything in Germany - from shoplifting to homicide," he says.
But that's not the point - and it's simply not true.
There is a justice system here for this, the laws also apply to foreigners who have committed criminal offenses.
Anyone who commits a crime in Germany should be punished.
However, he or she should not be sent back to death.
It is not the first time that Seehofer has questioned refugee protection.
When Greek security forces shot at refugees on the border with Turkey in March, killing at least two people in the process, the German interior minister defended the officers' actions.
Greece had protected the integrity of Europe, he said later in the Bundestag.
It was also Seehofer who apparently covered an illegal pushback by the Greek coast guard.
As Minister of the Interior, Seehofer is also Minister of the Constitution.
It would be nice if he would take this job as seriously as his profile as a hardliner.
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