Nationwide demonstrations against deportations: New German toughness on deportations

Nowhere is the hardening of German asylum policy more evident than in deportations. From 2022 to 2025, the number of those affected almost doubled to around 23,000 per year. The number of deportees has recently fallen slightly, but more than 50 people are still being taken to other countries by the German authorities every day.

On Saturday, various alliances and activists across the country want to draw attention to Germany's deportation policy. Where others fly on vacation, there will be demonstrations for the right to stay: in Berlin, Leipzig/Halle, Cologne/Bonn, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt am Main and Munich. In addition, there are calls for demonstrations in front of deportation detention facilities in Hanover, Darmstadt and Büren and near Paderborn-Lippstadt Airport.

The alliances We’ll Come United, Seebrücke and Opposition are behind the call. In addition, regional initiatives provide mobilization. The Bavarian Refugee Council wants to protest at Munich Airport against the establishment of a new “repatriation terminal” decided by the federal government and Munich Airport GmbH a few months ago. From 2028 onwards, up to 100 individual deportations are planned here every day, as well as two charter deportations of 50 people each. Around 70,000 people could be deported every year.

“This worries people,” says Katharina Grote from the Bavarian Refugee Council. Munich's mayor Dominik Krause (Greens) also voted against the project. Since the Free State of Bavaria and the federal government hold the majority of the shares in Flughafen GmbH, the construction was pushed through against the votes of the minority shareholder in Munich and the employee representatives. According to the Süddeutsche Zeitung, the airport will rent the terminal to the federal government for 4.2 million euros per year. A deportation terminal is also scheduled to go into operation at BER in Berlin from mid-2029, and in Frankfurt am Main as early as 2027.

The planned terminal in Frankfurt should be located somewhat away from the other terminals, “secluded in the forest,” says Dorothea Köhler from We’ll Come United, active in the Darmstadt subgroup Community For All. The coordinates she sent to taz show a building behind trees southwest of the regular runways, which is still marked on the map as a “communications center.” One wing will be intended for individual deportations, another for charter departures.

The terminal will also accommodate people going through the new external border procedures introduced with the latest reform of the Common European Asylum System (GEAS) in the spring of this year. Anyone who enters the country by plane and asks for asylum at the airport must go through such a procedure directly at the airport and is legally considered not to have entered the country. It is therefore also possible to de facto detain asylum seekers during their time at the airport and to deport them directly from detention if their application is rejected. Germany must reserve a total of 374 places for the external border procedures.

Like these procedures, charter flights are an attempt to force people out of the country as quickly and efficiently as possible. Individual deportations on scheduled airlines are repeatedly prevented by the on-board crew or passengers. In 2025, deportations were canceled in around 580 cases due to resistance from flight staff.

This cannot happen on charter flights. Instead of letting the individual deportees fly on scheduled flights, special flights are organized for collective deportation, for example in Leipzig/Halle, from where most people are deported to Afghanistan. In the first half of 2026 alone, three charter flights took off there with a total of 77 people.

On Saturday, a demonstration by the Leipzig Support Afghanistan initiative and other local groups will draw particular attention to the fate of Afghans. Nasima Haidari from Support Afghanistan criticizes the federal government for making common cause with the Taliban for deportations. “By working together there is a risk that the Taliban will be politically strengthened and treated as a normal partner.” The Taliban fundamentally violated human rights. Haidari is also committed to supporting other Afghans' right to stay out of his own concern and helps organize demonstrations and rallies.

For Dorothea Köhler in Darmstadt, that's what's special about We'll Come United: people who took advantage of asylum counseling later became involved in helping other people affected. Köhler says: “When you come here, you are forever an object: first on the run, then you are assigned, you are at the mercy of a system that you cannot understand at all.” In order to find out from this position, it is important to “impart knowledge in order to understand what is happening”.

The protests on Saturday are also intended to draw attention to who is being deported. The impression often arises that it is primarily about criminals, says Katharina Grote from the Bavarian Refugee Council. This probably applies to less than half of those deported, but there are no exact figures. And for those who actually have a criminal record, some of them are being prosecuted for crossing the border illegally or for allegedly not having a passport because of their own fault. These include people who once violated the narcotics law in their youth, but have put that behind them: “Now they are ready to start again, and then comes the expulsion.”

The term “criminal” also obscures the fact that “one in six deported people is a minor,” says Grote. And it obscures how deportations are carried out - "that it is a coercive measure, accompanied by restraints, and sedation is often used so that people are able to endure it."