(AFP) Germany is to start deporting Syrians with criminal records, the interior ministry said Saturday, days after Austria became the first EU country to do so in recent years.
The ministry had instructed the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) to take action against “dangerous Syrian individuals and delinquents,” a spokesman told AFP, confirming a report appearing in the Sunday edition of Welt newspaper.
The spokesman stressed that committing serious crimes meant one was excluded from the protection afforded by asylum and could lead to the revocation of any such status already granted.
An agreement reached by the coalition made up of Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s conservatives and the Social Democrats provided for deportations to Afghanistan and Syria “starting with delinquents and people considered a threat,” the spokesman added.
