German Police Deployed Extensive Special Forces to Arrest Two Young Afghan Men for Deportation

In northern Germany, a deportation order against two young men from Afghanistan on December 20 was marred by irregularities. What was meant to be a standard procedure turned into a major police raid, as the two deportees in question remained uncooperative, resisting the police for hours.

According to police in the northeastern city of Schwerin, an Afghan family of six barricaded themselves into a property belonging to a local church as police officers attempted to carry out a deportation order for two young men in the group, aged 18 and 22.

The Protestant Church for Northern Germany said the two adult sons were pegged to be deported to Spain to have their asylum case assessed there, as this was where they had first entered the European Union. The removal order had been issued five days earlier.

After about four hours of negotiating with the family, the police eventually forced their way into the apartment. During this raid, the 22-year-old deportee was slightly injured — “likely with a piece of broken glass,” as reported by the DPA news agency; his 47-year-old mother meanwhile was said to have been found “in a state of mental distress.”
Both had to be taken to hospital, and criminal proceedings were opened against the mother on account of issuing threats against the police and attempting to use coercion in the difficult situation. EPD reported that the mother had threatened to harm herself or another family member.

The police also said that concealed knives were found on both her person and on the body of the 22-year-old deportee when they stormed the property — as well as on one of the daughters of the family. Assuming that this, too, could signal the intention of harm or self-harm, the deportation operation eventually had to be cancelled.

A local resident meanwhile was also reported as having tried to interfere in the police operation by blocking access to the apartment and thus trying to prevent the deportation of the two young men from taking place, police sources said.