German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser has said her government is working at achieving closer cooperation with Ankara for the deportation of Turkish nationals with rejected asylum applications and expects the efforts to soon result in success, Turkish Minute reported, citing the German DPA news agency.
“We are working on it, and I’m sure that we will be able to report success there in the next few weeks,” said Faeser on Wednesday in response to questions from members of the German parliament about progress in deportations to Turkey.
According to recent reports in the German media, later confirmed by Faeser, the Turkish and German governments are working on a deal to facilitate the deportation of some 15,000 Turkish citizens from Germany who are living illegally in the country due to their rejected asylum requests.
The deal, first reported by the German Frankfurter Allgemeine (FAZ) newspaper in late September, aims for the deportation of several hundred people per month.
At the end of September, Faeser announced that Turkey had agreed to practical simplifications in the processing of deportations. For example, rejected asylum seekers do not necessarily have to be brought to the embassy in Berlin to obtain passport replacement documents for deportation since it can also be done at one of the Turkish consulates general.
“We have now reached a point where returns to Turkey can be carried out more quickly and effectively and that Turkey will more speedily take back citizens who are not allowed to stay in Germany.
“This is another building block in limiting irregular migration,” Faeser posted on X.
The Turkish government, however, has denied the reports.
“No practice of mass deportation of our citizens has been authorized,” a Turkish foreign ministry spokesman said in a tweet.
In the first nine months of this year, 23,133 Turkish citizens applied for asylum in Germany. The approval rate for asylum applications from Turkish nationals that have been decided so far this year is 9.6 percent. Almost 1,300 Turkish citizens were deported from Germany in 2023. At the end of April 2024, around 14,500 Turks in Germany were required to leave the country, according to DPA.
Following a failed coup in 2016 that led to a widespread crackdown on dissent by the Turkish government, the number of Turkish nationals seeking asylum in Germany and other Western European countries saw a significant increase.
An ongoing economic crisis caused by skyrocketing inflation, which currently stands at over 50 percent, and the constant depreciation of the Turkish lira is also prompting some Turks to look for ways to leave the country for a better life in Europe.
Turks who seek asylum for economic reasons are rejected since economic problems are not a reason to be granted asylum, while the risk of political persecution is.
Meanwhile, according to an announcement from the German Federal Statistical Office on Thursday, there were 522,700 asylum seekers receiving financial assistance from the government in 2023 in accordance with the Act on Benefits for Asylum Seekers. Turks along with Syrian asylum seekers made up of 15 percent of the total recipients. They were followed by Afghans nationals with 11 percent and by Iraqis with 8 percent.
The standard amount of assistance for a single person is currently 460 euros, and 413 euros per month for those staying in group accommodation. This year, the German federal and state governments agreed that the majority of benefits will in the future be processed via a cash card and that cash payments will only be made to a very limited extent.
