(AFP) Germany deported a man to Syria for the first time since the civil war broke out in that country in 2011, the interior ministry in Berlin said Tuesday.
A Syrian immigrant previously convicted of criminal offences in Germany was flown to Damascus and handed over to Syrian authorities on Tuesday morning, the ministry said.
“Our society has a legitimate interest in ensuring that criminals leave our country,” Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt said in a press release.
The deportation just before Christmas capped months of talks with Syria’s government, which mirrored similar efforts by Berlin to strike a deportation deal with the Taliban in Afghanistan.
