Horror in the district of Dachau at night deportation

Created: 07/15/2022, 18:44

By: Christiane Breitenberger

"He blossomed with us": The collage shows Gabriel, who has an intellectual disability.

Psychologist Richardson explains what the type of deportation means to him.

© Private

The deportation of a well-integrated family from Karlsfeld to Nigeria caused horror.

District Administrator Stefan Löwl defends himself against the allegations.

Dachau

– It was in the middle of the night, around 2 a.m., when the police picked up the family with their three children Claudia (6), Gabriel (10) and Stefanie (11) at their apartment and took them to the airport, “13 police officers pushed us to the plane like criminals,” says the father, Nicholas Esiovwa.

The family is now housed in a hotel with other deportees in Lagos, Nigeria.

Asylum seekers, the Bavarian Refugee Council, members of the Bundestag are shocked and appalled by the actions of the Dachau immigration authorities. Many have already sent open letters to District Administrator Stefan Löwl and sharply criticized the deportation, which the Dachau news reported on.

Dismay at the way the family was deported

The family came to Germany from Nigeria in 2015 and was well integrated here.

She lived in an apartment in Karlsfeld, the father was a valued employee of a Munich company as long as it was legally possible for him, the children went to school here, the son attended a day care center for remedial education.

The immigration authorities had not extended the family's toleration at the end of November.

"This point in time is extremely surprising, since the framework conditions of the planned right of residence were already known through the coalition agreement," explains Nanette Nadolski, who has been volunteering in the field of asylum assistance for six and a half years.

It was already known back then that “people who have been living in Germany for five years on January 1, 2022, have not committed a criminal offense and are committed to the free democratic basic order can receive a one-year probationary residence permit in order to meet the other requirements for to fulfill a right to stay,” says the coalition agreement, which was presented on November 24, 2021.

Assured in talks that the right of residence will be applied.

Beate Walter-Rosenheimer (Greens), member of the Bundestag, also emphasized in her public letter to District Administrator Löwl: "According to the facts available to me, it is not clear why the right of opportunity of residence, which will soon be passed, did not take effect here - as you promised in a number of discussions. "

Above all, the manner in which the deportation was carried out in the middle of the night horrified many.

The psychologist Julie Richardson, who cared for her son Gabriel in a day care center in Karlsfeld, classifies what this procedure means for children in particular: "It's a terrible trauma." In her facility, people are shocked by so much "inhumanity.

Why do we go to all the trouble when the children are then ripped out in such a brutally traumatizing way?”

Richardson judges that this type of deportation is “horrific” for Gabriel, “who, with his mental disability, is particularly in need of protection”.

also read

"Deportation of this family is a scandal": Police pick up mother, father and three children in the middle of the night

19 apartments, office and bakery in the former Hotel Central in Dachau

The spokesman for the Karlsfeld circle of helpers, Max Eckhardt, who knows the family, is appalled.

“This approach is reminiscent of bad times.

There has to be another way!”

Bavarian Refugee Council doubts legality

Stefan Dünnwald from the Bavarian Refugee Council writes: “The arrest of the family in the middle of the night also raises questions.

According to Section 58, Paragraph 7 of the Residence Act, this is only permitted if the family would otherwise avoid deportation.

There is no evidence for that.” Walter-Rosenheimer also criticized the deportation in the middle of the night: “In my view, entering the family's apartment at night is illegal.

Here I will check whether this incorrect procedure should result in a re-entry permit from the immigration authorities.”

The district office, on the other hand, explains in a statement: "The processes of a deportation are subject to secrecy.

District Administrator Löwl cannot make any statement about the manner of the deportation, since he is not involved in it either.

It should be noted here that detention pending deportation or the like is generally not possible for children, so that in these cases the measures must be scheduled in such a way that the period of restriction of freedom is as short as possible.

The time is therefore usually based on the planned departure times.”

In an open letter, Michael Schrodi (SPD), member of the Bundestag, criticizes the deportation massively: as "difficult to understand" and "particularly inhumane": "The father suffers from an autoimmune disease, in Nigeria it will be very difficult if not impossible for him to take the medication preserved and just as difficult to support his family.”   

But District Administrator Stefan Löwl assesses the situation differently: “Mr. E.’s autoimmune disease – which has been well controlled with medication – does not initially constitute a legal obstacle to deportation. The necessary medication (two bags) were also taken with them and examined by the medical team before departure. "

Family was about to be included in the Hardship Commission

Schrodi also accuses Löwl of deporting people who could have benefited from the new law shortly before the chances of residence law came into force: “From a legal point of view, this unnecessary deportation would not have been possible for much longer.

The family was about to be admitted to the Hardship Commission.

The planned Opportunity Residence Act has been firmly agreed.

Here, especially in countries led by the Union, facts should be created and people should be taken away from the justified hope of staying.

Such deportations create fear in other families.

This fear is at least accepted.”

District Administrator Stefan Löwl contradicts this: "The planned new regulations of the right of residence do not affect the E. family, since this group of people will not be covered by the regulations we have and are aware of." The family also have "information materials to support the voluntary departure”.

The Bavarian Refugee Council calls on the district administrator and the Ministry of the Interior to allow the family to return: "All in all, there are so many legally and, above all, morally dubious aspects that this deportation can only be seen as a scandal."

You can read more news from the Dachau region here.

Our Dachau newsletter informs you regularly about all the important stories from your region.

Sign up here.