Deportations Stall As North African Nations Won’t Accept Their Own Migrants Back

North Rhine-Westphalia Interior Minister Ralf Jäger has slammed countries in North Africa saying that they are uncooperative when it comes to accepting deported migrants.

North Rhine-Westphalia Interior Minister Ralf Jäger has criticised the governments of North African countries saying that they are refusing to accept migrants who have been deported from Germany, Donau Kurier reports.

“We must ensure that the migrants who do not need protection can be as quickly returned to their home countries,” Mr. Jäger told German media, but claimed that the problem wasn’t just deporting the migrants from Germany, but getting their countries of origin in North Africa to let them back in. “Above all, Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia are uncooperative,” he said.

Aside from the Balkan countries, the most likely deportation destination for illegal migrants is any one of the North African countries known as the Maghreb states. The German Federal government has announced that they regard the North African countries as safe countries, and so the asylum seekers who headed to Europe from their shores cannot claim legitimate asylum in Germany.

While the Federal government in Germany has tried to strengthen its deportation agreements with the nations in the region, Mr. Jäger claims that the situation is the same as it’s ever been. Speaking about his own experiences trying to deport migrants, some of whom may be criminals, he said: “In practice, however, nothing has changed.”

Urging Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government to rectify the matter as soon as possible, the NRW Interior minister talked about trying to deal with the Moroccan government in particular. He said that because of strict Moroccan government regulations failed asylum seekers could only be deported on government airlines and only, he said, “a maximum of four people per flight”.

These types of regulations, along with the need for police and medical staff on their deportation flights, have led to some saying that the costs of deporting a single migrant from regions in Germany can cost up to 50,000 euros. The equivalent commercial ticket to the same destination costing only a few hundred euros. “If this continues, we will be doing these deportations for at least twenty years,” Mr. Jäger said.

Another major issue for deportations has also been the fact that many migrants simply come back via illegal channels, as was the case with one migrant who was able to come back to Germany after being deported over ten times.  The other issue is migrants who claim to be underage to avoid deportation when they have committed a crime. Earlier this year over 70,000 underage migrants had been recorded as entering Germany and even if their asylum process fails, it is almost impossible for them to be deported.