German authorities wrongfully deported an Uighur man to China due to an administrative error, local media reported yesterday, in a fresh scandal as the nation seeks to step up expulsions of refused asylum seekers.
Officials were due to hold a hearing with the 22-year-old Uighur, who was not named, on April 3 over his asylum application, regional public broadcaster Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR) said.
However, a fax announcing the hearing from the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) apparently failed to reach local authorities in Bavaria, who, in the early hours of April 3, put the Uighur man on a plane to Beijing.
“We were unable to find the fax despite an intensive search,” Munich authorities told BR.
“We regret greatly that the deportation took place even though a valid asylum application had been made. It was never the intention of the immigration authorities of Munich to infringe on the rights of the foreigner affected by the expulsion,” they said.
The BAMF would not give details on individual cases, but told the broadcaster that expulsion would be “inadmissible” under such circumstances.
The Uighur asylum seeker’s lawyer, Leo Borgmann, said he has had no news from his client since the deportation.
“There is no sign of life. We fear that he has been detained,” Borgmann told BR.
The case surfaced after a series of administrative errors that led to illegal deportations by German authorities.
In a further controversial case, a German court last month ordered that a man who allegedly worked as a bodyguard for Osama bin Laden be returned to Germany only hours after his deportation to Tunisia, saying the expulsion was illegal as he risks torture there.
The 42-year-old, identified by German authorities only as Sami A. and by Tunis as Sami Idoudi, had lived in Germany for more than two decades, but outrage over his presence grew in recent months.
Although he had won a court ruling against his deportation, the decision reached federal authorities by fax a day later — hours after his flight to Tunisia had taken off.
Also last month, the German Ministry of the Interior was forced to repatriate an asylum seeker who had been deported to Afghanistan even though his legal appeal against expulsion was ongoing.
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