deportations | Day of action against “deportation madness”

There have already been several protests against the planned deportation terminal in Munich, including on May 11th at a CSU event with Federal Interior Minister Dobrindt in Trudering Photo: IMAGO/Stefan M. Prager At several German airports on October 24th you can not only fly on vacation, but also demonstrate against deportations. Initiatives nationwide are calling for protests on this day against deportations, detention pending deportation and the expansion of deportation infrastructure. There will be campaigns at Frankfurt am Main, Cologne, Munich, Leipzig, Düsseldorf, Hanover and Berlin airports.

The groups involved organize themselves locally, but network on the day of action under the motto “Nationwide against deportation madness”. »It is perverse that the expansion of deportation infrastructure is being sold to us as a necessity of administrative policy. In reality, the livelihoods of those affected are being destroyed there," says Katharina Grote from the Bavarian Refugee Council.

The association is part of the “Prevent MUC deportation terminal” campaign. A new terminal is to be built at Munich Airport just for deportations. That's why rallies against the deportation terminal have been taking place there for a long time. Grote calculates what the terminal would mean: “We are talking about a capacity of 100 individual deportations plus two charter flights daily, which could then be handled via this terminal. If we calculate with 50 people per charter, then we get 200 deportations a day, i.e. around 70,000 deportations a year, and that's just from Munich. These are simply outrageous numbers.” For comparison: Bavaria deported a total of 3,649 people last year.

»When deportations are carried out on scheduled flights, the flight staff repeatedly refuse to take those affected with them. In 2025 this happened in 580 cases. For collective deportations, this number is zero. You just want the whole thing to take place as far away from the public as possible.”

So far, Germany has also deported people individually using scheduled flights. At the same time, there are also so-called collective deportations with chartered machines. According to the Media Service for Integration, of the around 22,800 deportations nationwide in 2025, around 7,600 took place via charter flights. Collective deportations are partly coordinated by German authorities and partly by the EU border authority Frontex.

Deportations using charter flights are very expensive. According to the Integration Media Service, the federal government spent almost 33 million euros on this in 2025. However, charter flights are being organized more and more often because on scheduled flights it often happens that the cabin crew refuses to take the person in question with them. According to Katharina Grote, this happened in 580 deportations in 2025. »In the case of collective deportations, this number is zero. “You want the whole thing to take place as far away from the public as possible,” says Grote.

It is not yet clear whether the deportation terminal in Munich will actually be built. The airport's supervisory board approved the plans in July. »They cover the costs and then get the rent for it. “This company has consciously decided to profit from deportations,” comments an activist from Seebrücke Munich on this decision.

The planning approval process is currently ongoing because the airport's land would have to be expanded for construction. The city of Freising, which concerns this, has vetoed it. However, for other reasons, such as the campaign against the deportation terminal, says Grote. The main thing is environmental protection. After the procedure, a lawsuit can still be filed against the planning approval notice, but only by larger associations or by the city of Freising. Whether she would actually do that is uncertain.

"Obviously the governing parties here are already creating the infrastructure for the AfD's racist politics."

Grote reports how the nationwide day of action came about: The Green Party politician Leon Eckhard from Freising made a request to the Bundestag. It emerged that deportation terminals with similar capacities are also planned in other cities. In Frankfurt am Main, the building already exists and is simply being converted. A new deportation terminal is also to be built at Berlin Airport.

So the Munich initiative asked anti-racist groups from the two cities whether they wanted to protest at the airports at the same time. This has resulted in even more extensive networking. The nationwide active resistance alliance is also calling for protests in seven locations.

Lakshmi Thevasagayam, spokeswoman for Opposition, calls the high capacities that are to be created at Berlin, Frankfurt and Munich airports absurd: "Obviously the ruling parties are already creating the infrastructure for the AfD's racist politics. We can now prevent an infrastructure that is geared towards mass deportations.« The initiatives criticize the political priorities of the federal government. While serious savings are being discussed, particularly in the social and health sectors, at the same time significant public funds are being used for deportations and the necessary infrastructure. Cooperation with third countries for the purpose of deportation and the consequences of the reform of the Common European Asylum System (GEAS) are also the subject of the protests.

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