Germany: Police presence on migrant deportation flights nearly doubles The number of police officers escorting deported migrants from Germany has risen sharply over the past four years. Security staff are feeling the strain over safety concerns and distant destinations.

(Deutsche Welle) The number of police officers accompanying deportation flights in Germany has nearly doubled in four years, despite overall deportations decreasing.

There were nearly 11,000 police officers on deportation flights in 2018, compared with 5,841 in 2014 — a jump of 5,639 in a four-year period, reported the German newspaper Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung (NOZ).

During the same time period the total number of deportations has fallen — the German government told the NOZ that deportations had decreased from 10,787 in 2015 to 7,987 in 2018.

Between January and October 2019 alone a total of 11,480 police personnel traveled on deportation flights, compared with 11,000 from the same time period a year before.

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