After a long tug-of-war in the German coalition government (SPD/FDP/Greens), the german lower house, the Bundestagapproved last Thursday night a draft law which he is promoting series of measures, such as in particular the prolonged detention of foreignersto prevent their deportation proceedings from failing.

To facilitate the deportation of foreigners who are judged not to have the right to remain in the country, the measures include, among other things, the extension of the maximum duration of their detention during the procedure from 10 days to 28.

In addition, representatives of the authorities will henceforth be allowed to enter rooms or common accommodation areas, in addition to the rooms or areas in which persons under deportation stay.

In the past, deportations ordered by the authorities did not take place because those concerned could not be found.

The bill had been removed from the agenda during the last session of the German parliament before Christmas because one of the coalition partners — the Greens — wanted improvements. At the insistence of the ecological party, deported immigrants and refugees will now be entitled to a lawyer, at public expense if required.

The law also provides for tougher measures against so-called migrant smugglers. After strong protests from human rights organizations, a paragraph was added to this paragraph in order to clarify that the aim is not to criminalize rescues of refugees and migrants in danger at sea by NGOs.