Germany deports criminal to Syria as pressure mounts on migration

BERLIN, Dec 23 (Reuters) – Germany deported a convicted criminal to Syria on Tuesday for the first time since the start of a 14-year-long civil war there as the government in Berlin tries to show voters it is addressing their worries about migration. 

Around a million Syrians live in Germany, a legacy of former Chancellor Angela Merkel’s open-door policy, but migration now tops surveys of voters’ concerns and support for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) has surged. 

In response, conservative Chancellor Friedrich Merz has taken a tougher line on border security and migration, pledging to speed up deportations. Syria has become a focus since the end of the civil war last year.

The Syrian criminal was handed to authorities in Damascus on Tuesday morning, the interior ministry said, adding that another criminal was sent to Afghanistan, the second deportation there in a week.

“Deportations to Syria and Afghanistan must be possible,” said Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt.

“Our society has a legitimate interest in ensuring that criminals leave our country,” he said.

Critics have argued that deporting migrants back to the two countries would put them at excessive risk.

The man sent to Syria had served a prison sentence in north-western Germany for aggravated robbery, bodily harm, and extortion. The Afghan offender had been in prison in southern Bavaria for, among other things, intentional bodily harm.

(Reporting by Madeline ChambersEditing by Ludwig Burger)