Germany has announced just under 13,000 illegals were deported in 2022, around half the number from the year prior to the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic.
A spokesperson for the German Interior Ministry stated that in 2022 the government had deported a total of 12,945 migrants from Germany in response to a request for information. The number is only slightly higher than in 2021, which saw 11,982 deportations.
However, the number is a far cry from 2019, the year prior to the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic which saw over 22,000 deportations from the country, the European Union-funded website InfoMigrants reports.
The number of deportations includes migrants who were sent back to their home countries but also includes those sent to other European Union member states and others who are signatories to the Dublin regulation, which states that migrants can be deported to the country where they first attempted to claim asylum.
A report from earlier this month revealed that Germany attempted to send back nearly 70,000 migrants under the Dublin rules but was only successful in 6.05 per cent of the cases, deporting just 4,158 migrants.
The centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU), the party of former Chancellor Angela Merkel and the Bavarian Christian Social Union (CSU), noted that at least 50,000 migrants had been refused asylum in 2022 and the 13,000 deportation figure was “far too few.”
In total, around 304,300 people in Germany have been handed down deportation orders but 248,100 have been granted temporary stay under a tolerated stay permit or “duldung.”
In recent weeks, the European Union has sought to change gears on deportations and increase the number of successful expulsions from member states after last year saw a silent migrant crisis in which illegal entries topped around 330,000, the highest since 2016.
EU Home Affairs Commissioner, Ylva Johansson spoke out on the topic earlier this week saying, “Of course, those that are not eligible to stay in the European Union have to be returned to their country of origin,” and added that successful expulsions needed to be increased.