Germany looks to partnership agreements to repatriate irregular migrants

Amid growing dissatisfaction with the country’s handling of the refugee situation, Germany has decided to turn to forging bilateral agreements with countries to curb the number of new asylum applications, of which six are currently in the making.

Germany has so far only signed one bilateral ‘Migration and Mobility Partnership Agreement’ with India, but the government is in ‘confidential talks’ with several countries, according to Germany’s Interior Ministry.

“Georgia, Moldova, Kenya, Colombia, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan can currently be mentioned” as countries being involved in serious talks for migration agreements that would facilitate the repatriation of migrants to these countries, the Interior Ministry told dpa on Tuesday.

Germany’s handling of the ongoing migrant crisis has been high on the political agenda over the past few weeks, with the upcoming state elections in Hesse and Bavaria further intensifying public discourse.

Indeed, dissatisfaction with Germany’s handling of the refugee crisis is seen as bad or very bad by 73% of respondents in a recent Deutschlandtrend survey.

At the government level, however, the coalition has found it challenging to agree on a common approach, particularly as the Greens, the minor partner in Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s three-party government, are wary of taking a harder line on one of their core beliefs – a humane refugee policy.

Still, Scholz said he is confident more agreements would be finalised soon.

“There has been a lot of talk about this, I’ll say that, but we are really doing it now and have made great progress,” he stated at a citizens’ meeting in Hamburg on Monday.

Scholz has already intervened in the past to temper the more migrant-friendly approach favoured by the Greens, as he intervened last week to overrule the opposition to the EU Migration Deal championed by his Green Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, dropping Germany’s opposition to controversial parts of the EU migration deal.

Meanwhile, Scholz also signed a memorandum of understanding on the issue with Kyrgyzstan on Friday, and a similar document exists with Uzbekistan – two countries which this year have so far taken in a total of around 160 refugees while Germany registered more than 220,000 asylum applications in the same period.

Of the countries with which Germany is seeking to conclude migration agreements, only Georgia has accepted a large number of asylum seekers (around 7,400) compared to the slightly higher number of applicants.

Nevertheless, the efforts made with these countries will not be in vain.

Scholz, who is confident the public will support the initiative, claims the government now has a blueprint for such agreements, which will speed up the work.

(Kjeld Neubert | Euractiv.de)