How does Germany deport people?

"Germany has no equivalent of the US' specialized Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency, though that would change if the Bavarian branch of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) had its way. Apparently directly inspired by the actions of ICE under President Donald Trump's administration, an internal paper from the far-right party seen by the German newspaper taz this week proposed that a new authority be created within the Bavarian state police named the Asyl-, Fahndungs- und Abschiebegruppe (AFA), or the "Asylum, Tracing and Deportation group.""

"In the last ten years, the German government has introduced a series of reforms designed to make it easier to deport immigrants with what the bureaucratic system calls "poor prospects of staying." That effort has been stepped up more recently, as both Chancellor Friedrich Merz and his predecessor, Olaf Scholz, have tried to remove the legal obstacles to deportation. The effect has been noticeable in the statistics: According to the Interior Ministry, 21,311 deportations were carried out between January and November 2025, a 16% increase on the same period the year before."

"On top of that, over 30,000 people "self-deported" in 2025 by leaving the country voluntarily after being served with a "Grenzubertrittsbescheinigung" a notice informing them they are obliged to leave the country by a certain date. Who can be deported? As a rule, any immigrant who does not have residency status, or any asylum seeker whose application has been turned down, is obliged to leave Germany by a certain deadline (a month in the case of asylum-seekers). If they don't, they can be deported."

Germany currently lacks a national equivalent to the US ICE, but the Bavarian AfD proposed creating the Asyl-, Fahndungs- und Abschiebegruppe (AFA) within the Bavarian state police, explicitly inspired by ICE actions. Over the past decade, the federal government implemented reforms aimed at making deportation easier for immigrants deemed to have "poor prospects of staying." Recent political pushes by Chancellor Friedrich Merz and predecessor Olaf Scholz targeted legal barriers to deportation. Deportations rose sharply: 21,311 removals between January and November 2025, a 16% year-on-year increase, alongside over 30,000 voluntary "self-deportations" after formal notices.

Read at www.dw.com