Forty-three people were aboard a deportation flight that took off from Germany for Baghdad on Tuesday, the Interior Ministry confirmed after news emerged of the first such flight since February, reported dpa.
Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt, who has been pushing a tougher approach to migration, said the flight was part of his new policies, as he continued to call for more returns, agreements with other countries and a crackdown on people's smugglers, in comments to the Bild tabloid.
The 43 men aboard the flight, which departed at 10:52 am (0852 GMT) from the eastern city of Leipzig, had all been required to leave the country, according to authorities in the state of Thuringia.
Fourteen of the deportees – all single men, some of whom had been convicted of criminal offences – had been based in Thuringia, in central Germany.
A dpa photographer described how police prepared the flight's departure, with the passengers taken to the aircraft in police vehicles and two larger airport buses. Police officers accompanied the passengers individually up the stairs into the plane.
After landing in the Iraqi capital, the passengers first went through various immigration formalities, dpa learnt from airport sources.
The transfer was subject to strict security protocols in Iraq, they said. It was initially unclear where the men were to be taken after entering the country.
Germany deported 816 Iraqis last year, according to the Interior Ministry. Some were sent to other EU countries to have their asylum applications processed, while 615 people were taken directly to Iraq.
In February of this year, 47 people were deported from Hanover to Iraq. Last Friday, a deportation flight to Afghanistan also took off from Leipzig Airport. According to official figures, 81 offenders were on board that flight.
The security situation in Iraq remains tense after decades of war and political unrest. There is currently no major fighting, but attacks continue by armed groups, including Iranian-backed militias. There are also tensions with Kurdish groups in the north of the country.
The UN says 1.2 million Iraqi people are internally displaced and 3 million people are dependent on humanitarian aid. Many returnees are unable to meet their basic needs on their own.
In a 2023 survey of returning migrants conducted by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), almost half of respondents said they wanted to emigrate from Iraq again within six months.
- Germany
- Deports
- Iraqi
- Men
Source: www.dailyfinland.fi
