Germany is planning to step up the deportation of asylum seekers who have entered the country via another EU member state, including Croatia, as reported by Deutsche Welle (DW) on Wednesday.

Between 1 January 2023 and 30 September 2024, a total of five charter flights will take off from Bavaria to Croatia with a total of 21 deportees, DW said, citing the Bavarian State Office for Asylum and Repatriation.

People from Syria, Afghanistan, Turkey, Jordan and Iran

According to the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees, Germany sent 16,704 requests to Croatia last year to take in refugees in accordance with the Dublin III Regulation. This states that the member state in which the applicant entered the European Union is responsible for the asylum seeker in question.

The Bavarian State Office announced on its website that a charter flight took off from Munich to Zagreb on 13 November, bringing 15 people back to Croatia on the basis of the Dublin III Regulation.

The people were nationals from Syria, Afghanistan, Turkey, Jordan and Iran. Among them was one person who had already been convicted several times for illegal entry into Germany. The Bavarian State Chancellery thanked all the countries and agencies involved for their “smooth and successful” cooperation.

Pressure on the government

At their meeting in Munich at the end of August, the Croatian and Bavarian interior ministers, Davor Bozinovic and Joachim Herrmann, discussed the need to reduce illegal entry into the European Union.

Following several attacks committed by refugees who should have been expelled from Germany under the Dublin III Regulation, pressure has increased on the government to intensify the deportation of people who have no right to remain in Germany.

Deportations usually fail due to a lack of cooperation from the countries of origin, but also because some EU member countries, such as Italy, refuse to accept people who have entered the EU via their territory.