(Adnkronos) – Yesterday, forty-three people were on board a deportation flight that left Germany for Baghdad, the Interior Ministry confirmed after news of the first such flight since last February. Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt (Csu), who has pledged to promote a tougher approach to immigration, said the flight is part of his new policies. More repatriations, agreements with other countries and a crackdown on human traffickers are needed, the minister told Bild.
The 43 men on board the flight, which departed at 10:52 a.m. from the eastern city of Leipzig, had all been obliged to leave the country, according to authorities in the state of Thuringia. Fourteen of the deportees, all single men, some of whom were convicted of criminal offences, resided in Thuringia, in central Germany.
A Dpa photographer described how the police prepared the flight’s departure, with passengers transported aboard police cars and two larger airport buses. Officers accompanied the passengers individually up the stairs to the plane. After landing in the Iraqi capital, passengers had to complete several immigration formalities, Dpa learned from airport sources.
The transfer was subject to strict security protocols in Iraq, the sources said. Initially, it was unclear where the men would be taken after entering the country. Germany deported 816 Iraqis last year, according to the Interior Ministry. Some were sent to other EU countries for examination of their asylum applications, 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 people 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 by armed groups continue, including those by Iranian-backed militias. There are also tensions with Kurdish groups in the north of the country.
The UN says 1.2 million Iraqis are displaced and 3 million people depend on humanitarian aid. Many returnees are unable to meet their basic needs independently. In a 2023 survey of returning migrants by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), nearly half of respondents said they wanted to emigrate again from Iraq within six months.
