The number of deportations from Germany to Turkey has risen, marking a substantial increase from 515 in 2022 to 744 between January and October 2023, the Neuen Osnabrücker Zeitung, a German regional daily, reported on Thursday.
According to the newspaper, which cites an answer from the Federal Ministry of the Interior to a question from Clara Buenger, a member of the Bundestag for the Die Linke opposition party, 13,512 people were deported from Germany in the first 10 months of 2023, a significant increase compared to the 12,945 deportations last year.
There have been fewer deportations in recent years, Neuen Osnabrücker Zeitung said, mainly due to the coronavirus pandemic. in 2021, 11,982 people were deported, compared to 10,800 in 2020.
The pre-pandemic level has still not been reached again, the daily said, adding that 22,097 people were deported in 2019.
The main destination countries so far this year have been Austria, Georgia, North Macedonia, Moldova and Albania, according to the daily.
It was also pointed out that while 515 people were deported to Turkey in 2022, the figure rose to 744 in the first 10 months of this year. There were only 361 deportations in 2021.
Criticizing the upward trend, Bünger said it means more and more people are being forced back against their will to countries where they are threatened with war, arbitrary detention, torture, extreme poverty or a lack of prospects.
She added that it would be much better to open up a path to a permanent right of residence for those people.
Bünger called the increase in deportations to Turkey particularly worrying, underlining that left-wing and pro-Kurdish opposition members in Turkey were being imprisoned en masse for the sole reason that they had campaigned for democracy and the right to self-determination.
“It is unacceptable that German authorities are deporting refugees from Turkey directly into the hands of their persecutors. The cronyism with the regime of [President Recep Tayyip] Erdoğan must end,” she added.
In late November, the Deutsche Welle Turkish service reported that the number of Turkish citizens attempting to enter Germany without a valid residence or travel document had increased significantly. The figures rose from 2,077 in 2019 to 9,094 last year, representing a 338 percent increase.
According to the information provided by the police, a total of 12,321 Turkish citizens entered Germany illegally between January and September 2023, and they anticipate this figure to reach 20,000 by the end of the year, suggesting that the number will increase tenfold compared to 2019.
Thousands of people had to flee Turkey in the aftermath of a coup attempt in July 2016, following which Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) launched a widespread crackdown on non-loyalist citizens under the pretext of an anti-coup fight. These people, some of whom had to flee the country illegally by way of the Aegean Sea or Evros River land border because their passports had been canceled under state of emergency measures taken by the government, applied for asylum in Europe and other countries.
In addition to these people, many others are trying to move abroad, mostly to Europe, the United States and Canada, for better life and career opportunities.