Germany-Deportations
ALGERIAN POLICE ASSIST IN DEPORTATIONS
Refugee aid organisation criticises deal with „terror regime“

Frankfurter Rundschau
By Jutta Redmann

(original Beitrag auf deutsch)
Algerische Polizisten helfen bei Abschiebungen.
Pro Asyl kritisiert Bonns Abkommen mit „Terrorregime“.

Bonn – As the result of an agreement reached between the Algerian and German governments, Algerian refugees deported from Germany in future will be escorted by Algerian policeman on the flight home.

The refugee aid organisation Pro Asyl said the protocol on the return of deportees amounted to „undisguised collaboration with the Algerian terror regime“.

Pro Asyl spokesman Heiko Kauffmann said on Wednesday in Frankfurt that the deal showed that in the „de facto civil war between a violently operating government lacking democratic legitimation and violent Islamists“, the German government had once more „decided to cooperate with the government“.

Detlef Dauke, spokesman for the federal interior ministry, confirmed to the „Frankfurter Rundschau“ in Bonn that the protocol for the return of deportees had been signed. However, it was unlikely to take effect for several months since it still had to be ratified by Algeria.

In response to Pro Asyl’s accusation that the German government was collaborating with the Algerian terror regime, Dauke said: „This statement is an own goal.“ When someone was deported it was the „result of an extensive process of checks and controls“ to ensure that the person concerned faced „no threat to life and limb“.

Dauke added that since autumn 1996 Germany had had a similar agreement with Yugoslavia according to which deportees were escorted home by Yugoslavian policemen.

He also said that in 1996 exactly 778 people had been deported to Algeria, as against 791 in 1995 and 1,459 the year before that.

Pro Asyl cites a letter dated February 19 of this year sent by the German interior ministry to interior ministers in the federal states. The letter describes as „gratifying“ Algeria’s willingness „to accede to the German request and involve Algerian police officers in measures to return Algerian citizens deported within the framework of the protocol“.

„In view of the constantly increasing number of refractory Algerians awaiting deportation“, this was „of enormous significance from both a practical and public relations point of view“.

Kauffmann was also critical of the German government’s agreement to bear the cost of Algerian „escort personnel“.

He said that up till now Algerian refugees had been sent back to the Algerian security forces „free of charge“, but now Bonn was going to pay for them to be „collected in person at German airports“.

Furthermore, in addition to the names of those it was intending to deport, Germany was already providing the Algerian interior ministry with information on any resistance they might offer, thus enabling it to deploy „specialist security personnel“ to deal with them.

As Kauffmann put it: „Now they will handed to the Algerian regime’s henchmen on a plate.“