Dusseldorf, Oct 2, (dpa/GNA) – Germany deported 50 people to Iraq on Tuesday, on a flight from Dusseldorf airport, authorities said.
North Rhine-Westphalia’s Refugee Ministry said 26 of the deportees, had criminal convictions.
The deportation flights are controversial, as the security situation in Iraq remains tense, following decades of conflict and political unrest.
Among the passengers on the Baghdad-bound deportation flight, were also seven Yezidis, the ministry said.
The Yezidi minority suffered particularly brutal persecution at the hands of the Islamic State group, when the extremists controlled large swathes of Iraq.
In 2023, the German lower house of parliament, the Bundestag, recognized the crimes committed by the Islamic State against Yezidis in 2014 as genocide.
North Rhine-Westphalia had suspended deportations of Yezidi women and girls until June 2024.
However, the ministry said on Tuesday its legal options to prevent their deportations had been exhausted, and called upon the federal government to take action to enshrine protection for Yezidis.
This was not the first deportation flight from Germany to Iraq this year. In July, 43 people were flown from Leipzig to Baghdad, while in February 47 people were deported from Hanover.
According to the Federal Interior Ministry, Germany deported 816 Iraqi nationals in 2024. While some were transferred to other EU countries responsible for their asylum procedures, 615 people were sent directly to Iraq.
GNA