Deportee Story

It's a page two type story from Focus magazine this morning (the news magazine folks here in Germany).  The topic?  Well....deportations of failed visa applicants has a problem.

The basic story centers on the first quarter of 2018.

In this period....every other deportation effort in Germany....failed.

The German cops, who hold the responsibility of deporting folks.....say that 5548 folks were deported.  But in the same quarter....there were another 4,752 deportations which failed or could not occur.

There are various reasons where a deportation can fail....some relate to health conditions.  Some to legal situations.  But Focus brought up this one odd aspect.  Seventy-five episodes were halted because the pilots refused to fly the plane with the deportees onboard.

Justified?  Yes.....to some degree.  Pilots are supposed to worry about safety, and if they think that the guy being brought onboard is a nutcase or potential threat....they can say no.

The German cops?  They are a bit aggravated over the high number (4,752).  They invest man-hours into this 'act' and each failed deportation adds onto a number which is public information.  It makes them look bad....even if it's not their fault.

What the cops are suggesting?  There's some hint that they'd like to go and arrange one flight (figure 90-plus seats) via a chartered airline (filled with only deportees) to go to X-country.  The chartered airline would bid on the flight....likely ensure a fair profit....and agree to have a pilot there to fulfill the obligation (probably NOT a German pilot, that's my humble guess).

The potential mess?  I tend to look at the worst possible scenario of things and the one that stands out in this case?  What if you chartered such a flight, with 150-deportees onboard, and it crashed? Can you imagine the pro-asylum crowd and the hostile nature coming out of such an event?  Naturally, they'd tell you that it'd be ok if this were a regular flight with 145 non-deportees and 5 deportees onboard (so much easier for these folks to accept).

The problem with this idea is that you'd have to bring in a thousand cops to ensure an operation like this with one single flight....filled with forced deportees....was effectively carried out.  It just makes it into a bigger mess.