2046 people were deported from Bavaria, but the federal government could do more.
Interior Minister Joachim Hermann (CSU) therefore gave a reprimand.
Munich – Bavaria deported more rejected asylum seekers to their home country again last year – but has not yet reached the pre-Corona level again.
Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann (CSU) said in Munich that 2046 people had been repatriated in 2022.
According to the information, 24,500 foreigners left voluntarily, although this number is difficult to assess.
According to Herrmann, there were many Ukrainians among them who were returning home or traveling on to other countries.
Before Corona, 3,200 (2018) and 3,500 people (2019) had been deported; during the pandemic years, the number fell to 1,500 (2020) and 1,900 (2021) respectively.
Against this background, the minister criticized the federal government.
The latter failed to fulfill his promise to push for the consistent repatriation of people with no prospects of staying in parallel to the introduction of a right of residence.
"Zero point zero" has happened so far, the CSU politician reprimanded.
Election year in Bavaria: CSU wants to take up migration again as an issue - and learn from old mistakes
The CSU wants to take up the issue of migration again in the election year, but not repeat the mistakes of the years from 2015 onwards.
What is new is the clear commitment that Germany and Bavaria need labor migration.
"The traffic light should simply ensure that visas are issued more quickly in the German embassies in the Western Balkans," CSU leader Markus Söder criticized our newspaper at the beginning of the year.
Sometimes it takes twelve or 24 months to issue work visas.
Bavaria therefore wants to open three of its own offices in the region - in Belgrade, Sarajevo and Tirana - in order to address specialists there directly.
Among other things, it is also about recognizing local qualifications in Bavaria more quickly.
At the same time, Herrmann is concerned about the recent increase in uncontrolled immigration.
The fact that even green district administrators are now sounding the alarm is significant.
"If the federal government does not manage to reduce these numbers, the situation will eventually escalate," warned the CSU politician, who also rejects the traffic light's plans to reform citizenship law.
Especially when learning the language, there should be no compromises.
Bavaria's Minister of the Interior refers to statistics on migration: other countries are "drastically worse".
To back up his words, Herrmann presented statistics on the subject of integration.
While the unemployment rate for foreigners in Bavaria is 8.1 percent (in the total population 3.1 percent), it is 19.2 (5.5) in Lower Saxony and 20.5 percent (6.4) in Saarland.
The difference to eastern Germany is even more stark: in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, the unemployment rate for foreigners is 26 percent (7.6).
The rate of unemployed foreign women is also interesting: Bavaria 10.2, Lower Saxony 25.9, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania 37.9.
Herrmann's conclusion: In Bavaria there is still a lot to do in terms of integration, but things are going "drastically worse" in other countries.
(M SCHIER)