German Minister of the Interior wants to pay criminal Afghans money to leave the country

What should we do with the many criminal Afghans in Germany? Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser is now apparently looking into using cash payments to persuade criminals to leave the country.

The Federal Ministry of the Interior (BMI) plans to persuade criminal Afghans to leave the country by paying them money. The BMI is examining the legal and specific requirements "for deportations to Afghanistan as well," a BMI spokesperson told the Bild newspaper. In order to create the legal requirements for this, "the payment of 'financial travel support' could also serve."

Who should receive these cash payments and how high the benefits should be would then be the responsibility of the respective state governments - deportations are a matter for the states. Last year, 51,275 Afghans submitted a first asylum application in Germany, an increase of 41 percent compared to 2022. Of all first applications in 2023, around 15 percent came from the country in the Hindu Kush. At the same time, Afghans are massively overrepresented in crime statistics.

Tens of thousands of departures fail
The German government had suspended deportations to the country after the Taliban seized power in the summer of 2021. After the Afghan Suleiman Ataee seriously injured several critics of Islam with a knife and killed the police officer Rouven L. in Mannheim at the end of May this year, debates about deportations to Afghanistan and Syria became louder again. Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser (both SPD) then announced repatriations to these countries.

Similar programs to encourage asylum seekers to leave voluntarily by paying money already exist. The amounts they receive vary depending on the price level in the country of origin and the person's marital status. This can be between a few hundred and several thousand euros. But deportations are usually considerably more expensive; in February 2023, for example, a man was returned to Niger. The cost: 120,000 euros.

Deportations also fail again and again. Often because those affected do not show up for the appointment. In 2023, 16,430 foreigners were returned to their homeland, 31,330 returns failed.

Source: Junge Freiheit