Somalia’s president, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud (L) and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Berlin during the Somali leader’s visit | Photo: Hannes P Albert / picture alliance
The leaders of Somalia and Germany have agreed to boost the number of deportations of Somali migrants without legal status. The deal will mostly affect a handful of people convicted of serious crimes.
Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz have announced plans to return a greater number of Somali nationals without the right to remain in Germany.
After a meeting with the Somali president in Berlin, Scholz said undocumented Somalis would be “repatriated quickly and efficiently.”
He added that the deportations would apply mostly to people convicted of serious criminal offences.
Any new arrangement on returns is likely to affect very few people: of around 65,000 Somalis registered as living in Germany, Scholz himself pointed out that only a “small number” do not have the right to stay.
The government has committed to increasing deportations as a key policy measure aimed at deterring undocumented migrants from coming to Germany.
As well as fulfilling that policy promise, Scholz said the agreement to step up deportations to Somalia is “also in the interest of the very large community of Somalis here in Germany who are doing well and are well-integrated.”
In light of recent terrorist attacks allegedly perpetrated by asylum seekers in Germany, the issue of migrant crime has been the subject of heated political debate and populist rhetoric.
Germany has been pursuing closer bilateral relations with Somalia and has seen an improvement in ties over the past decade, as the political situation in the East African country has become increasingly stable.
In an interview with Germany’s BILD newspaper, the Somali president stressed that his country is keen on further German investment, especially in sectors such as fishing and agriculture.
The German foreign ministry warns against travel to Somalia on account of the high risk of terrorist attacks, violent crime, landmines, kidnapping and other dangers. But speaking in Berlin, Hassan Sheikh said the country had become safer.
“We are no longer a country of civil war,” he told BILD, though he admitted that terrorist militias al-Shabaab and IS, while they had been “pushed back”, were still active.
Somali nationals returning from Germany would be welcomed, and some are already in the process of being repatriated, the president said.
“We must become a home for our citizens again, also for those who live in Germany. Each of them has a home – Somalia. They can all go back there, no problem.”
The agreement with Somalia is part of Germany’s efforts to increase deportations and to seek formal readmission agreements with migrants’ countries of origin.
It has signed such deals with several countries including India, Morocco and Kenya, to enable migrants without legal status to be sent back.
This does not mean these countries, or Somalia, are “safe”. So-called safe countries of origin are those where there is no general threat of persecution. Germany’s list currently includes EU countries and some of their neighbors, plus Ghana and Senegal.
