Migrants look to UK as Germany toughens laws – and warn that people smuggling could increase
Ahmed is on the move.
From a sun-bleached phone screen, he explains he’s running from Germany after being threatened with deportation.
His target destination: the UK.
“I want to go to the UK because I’m afraid of the deportation in Germany. Already they try to deport me and that’s why I left,” he says in a video message.
It’s hurriedly recorded somewhere on the coast of northern France.
In a few hours, he expects to get the signal from smugglers that they will try to cross the channel in a dinghy.
It’s his second attempt in just a few days.
Ahmed speaks via video call
His first attempt failed after French police caught the group trying to pick up more passengers and slashed their dinghy.
Ahmed is one of a number of Iraqi Kurds Sky News teams have met recently who’ve paid smugglers to get to the UK after Germany toughened its deportation rules.
Rishi Sunak‘s Illegal Migration Act, which created powers to send asylum seekers to Rwanda, hasn’t put them off.
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Germany announced tougher laws in an attempt to reduce illegal migration.
“I’m not afraid about Rwanda or even about crossing the water because I’m looking for a better place to live,” Ahmed says. “I’m very sure if the deportation doesn’t stop in Germany, all the refugees in Germany will cross the border to UK.”
Asylum applications in Germany rocketed to their highest rate since 2016 last year as more the 351,000 people arrived – around four times the amount coming to the UK.
In an attempt to reduce illegal migration, the German government announced tougher laws.
The new measures include faster decisions on asylum applications, restricted benefits and speedier deportations.
Authorities also have more powers when conducting searches and can hold people for up to 28 days ahead of return flights.
Deportations are up around a third on the same period last year with more than 6,300 people deported between January and April, according to official statistics.
Outside the Iraqi embassy in Berlin, we meet a group of protestors who say they’re already feeling the effects of the new laws.
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Protesters outside the Iraqi embassy in Berlin
Many have lived in Germany for years, some given temporary leave to remain, but have recently been told Iraq is safe to return to and it’s time to leave.
“Some of my friends have been deported. The police raided the house at two or three in the morning,” Goran tells me.
He says he’s noticed a rise in people having their asylum claims rejected.
“I’m scared and can’t sleep in my own home,” he says.
He shows me a card which registers him as severely disabled with the Germany authorities.
Both his legs have been amputated and he says he can’t live in Iraq.
Goran says he’s noticed a rise in people having their asylum claims rejected
I ask if he thinks people will flee to other countries such as France and the UK if deportations keep on rising.
“For sure, smuggling will increase,” he replies. “People who feel their lives are politically threatened back in Iraq will try any way possible to reach another country.”
Another lady shows us the medicine she relies on, which she says is hard to get in Iraq.
“They know that my country is not safe,” she says. “I own videos of the killings, robbery and kidnapping of women.”
The group holds up pictures of people they say are victims of deportation – a man injured as he tried to flee, and another they claim died at sea on a smuggler’s boat.
The German government says the deportations are in line with international law.
One woman told us medication would be hard to get in Iraq
A spokesperson from the interior ministry said in a statement: “The Act to Improve Repatriation, which came into force on 27 February 2024, contains numerous and extensive improvements in order to be able to enforce an obligation to leave the country even more effectively in future.
“Co-operation with Iraq takes place in a so-called non-contractual procedure in accordance with the principle of international law, according to which every state is obliged to take back its own citizens informally if they have no right of residence in the host country.”
In a kitchen in southern Germany, we listen as our phone call to Kurdistan rings.
A young man answers.
Hama, not his real name, tells us he was deported to Iraq at the end of April.
He explains there were 25 immigrants on his deportation flight and 90 officers guarding them.
A deportation flight leaving Germany
He claims his life is at risk in Kurdistan so he is in now in hiding.
“How did you feel on the flight home?” I ask.
“Very, very bad,” he says. “It’s not safe, I cannot go outside.”
Hama is now indefinitely separated from his wife Shaida, who is Iranian and was given asylum in Germany.
Time ran out before they could gather the paperwork to prove they were legally married.
Shaida is devastated.
“We didn’t sleep for 10 days. It’s very hard to see him like this because I feel like they took something from us,” she says.
“Germany, how can they say they are a democratic country? My husband didn’t do anything wrong. He was on a course learning German and he was working.”
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Party leaders on migration crisis
Following the 2015 migrant crisis, Germany’s then chancellor Angela Merkel announced an “open door policy” and took in more than a million refugees fleeing war in Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq.
She defended the decision, saying it was an “extraordinary situation”, but the migration policy outraged some voters and led to a surge in support for the far-right Alternative for Germany.
The policy was later abandoned but Germany remains one of the largest refugee-hosting countries in the world.
Faced with surging asylum applications last year, the current Chancellor Olaf Scholz agreed an “historic” stricter migration policy.
The chancellor is now under pressure to do more following the recent gains by the far right in the EU elections.
German state leaders have demanded he makes “proposals for effective control” ahead of a meeting on Thursday.
This month, after a police officer died following an attack by a failed asylum seeker, he pledged to tighten rules so the glorification of terrorist offences can be sufficient grounds for deportation.
He also said the government was working on ways to deport criminals and dangerous migrants back to countries such as Afghanistan and Syria.
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I ask Shaida if she agrees when politicians say nations have to have a limit and can’t grant every asylum application they receive.
“I accept what you’re saying but Germany doesn’t know how to do it fairly,” she replies.
Shaida shows me pictures of herself in her wedding dress standing by her husband in the German countryside.
It could be years before the man she loves is allowed to return.
Germany’s open door period is a distant memory.
As for Ahmed – he’s now in the UK.
After several failed attempts, including one when the French police cleared the beach with tear gas, he managed to slip away on a dinghy and into British waters.
The government is warning people not to travel to Israel under any circumstances, as the country’s missile exchange with Iran shows no sign of abating.
On Friday, the Foreign Office warned against “all but essential travel” to most of Israel.
The areas around Gaza, the West Bank and the Golan Heights were already classed as red zones, with warnings to avoid travel to these areas.
But the government has now updated the warning for the remainder of the country to red.
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This puts Israel on the same level as Iran, and the change of advice is also likely to impact travel insurance.
However, with Israel’s airspace closed, it is unlikely many people will be attempting the journey, and Israel’s national airline El Al has announced it is cancelling flights to and from many European cities, as well as Tokyo and Moscow, until 23 June.
The change in travel advice comes after a second night of ballistic missile barrages from Iran following Israel’s attack in the early hours of Friday morning.
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An eight-storey residential building in Tel Aviv was hit by a missile last night.
On Sunday morning, Israel’s health ministry said 12 people had been killed over the past day, taking the total since Friday to 15. It also said 385 people had arrived at hospital with injuries overnight.
Iran has not provided a total number of deaths or overall casualties, but has claimed dozens have been killed.
Iran’s health minister has said most of those injured and killed in Israeli strikes were civilians. According to comments carried by news agency IRNA, he said the majority were women and children.
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The chancellor said UK forces could “potentially” be used to help defend Israel.
Read more:
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The UK government is sending military assets, including fighter jets, to the Middle East.
While the prime minister would not confirm to reporters that UK forces could be used to defend Israel from future Iranian attacks, the chancellor told Sky News earlier that the government is “not ruling anything out”.
Speaking to Sky’s Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips, Rachel Reeves said sending military assets to the Middle East “does not mean that we are at war”, and emphasised that “we have not been involved in these strikes or this conflict”.
“But we do have important assets in the region,” she continued. “And it is right that we send jets to protect them. And that’s what we’ve done. It’s a precautionary move, and at the same time, we are urging de-escalation.”
Pushed on the question of what the UK would do if Israel asked for support with its operations, the chancellor replied: “I’m not going to rule anything out at this stage. It’s a fast-moving situation, a very volatile situation. But we don’t want to see escalation.”
A helicopter carrying Hindu pilgrims has crashed in India, killing seven people on board.
The accident happened within minutes of the helicopter taking off, officials said, on what should have been a 10-minute flight.
The helicopter was flying to Guptkashi, a prominent Hindu pilgrimage site in the Himalayas, from Kedarnath temple town in the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand.
It comes three days after an Air India flight crashed less than a minute after taking off from Ahmedabad airport in northwestern India, killing at least 270 people.
The helicopter, which was operated by private helicopter service Aryan Aviation, went down in a forested area several miles from the Kedarnath pilgrimage route at around 5.30am local time.
Officials said the crash was believed to have been caused by poor weather conditions.
Authorities say they have launched a search and rescue operation and are expected to review operational protocols for flights in the region.
The dead include the pilot and pilgrims from the neighbouring state of Uttar Pradesh and western states of Maharashtra and Gujarat, according to officials. The bodies were badly burned in a fire that followed the crash, they said.
Smoke and debris at the site. Pic: Reuters
Tens of thousands of pilgrims visit Kedarnath, which is home to one of the four most sacred Hindu temple shrines, each summer. Many use helicopter services due to the difficult mountainous terrain.
Helicopter mishaps are not uncommon in the region, where sudden weather changes and high-altitude flying conditions can pose risks.
Earlier this month, a helicopter operating in the Kedarnath Valley made an emergency landing shortly after taking off on a highway due to a technical fault. The pilot was injured but all five passengers on board were unharmed.
In May, a helicopter crashed in Uttarkashi district, killing six people, including the pilot. One person survived.
An Irish politician who was detained in Egypt trying to cross into Gaza says the police were violent towards the group after seizing his phone.
People Before Profit-Solidarity TD (MP) Paul Murphy was part of a large demonstration attempting to march to the Rafah crossing in a bid to get aid into the region.
The opposition politician said his phone and passport were confiscated on Friday before he was put on a bus to Cairo airport for deportation.
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Footage of the seconds before his phone was seized shows authorities forcibly dragging protesters away from the sit-down demonstration.
Ireland’s deputy premier said several Irish citizens who were detained have now been released. Mr Murphy confirmed he was among the released protesters, posting a photo on his Facebook page saying he was back in Cairo and “meeting shortly to decide next steps”.
In a message from Mr Murphy after he was detained, posted online by his social media team, he said: “I’m ok, but they still have my phone.
“Egyptian police say we’re going to airport but this isn’t the road we came on because there are 1000s of marchers on the streets. They’re taking us south past a lake, then west towards Cairo.
“Violence got worse after they seized my phone.
“One American woman in my group was badly kicked & beaten, and had her hijab torn off.”
Sky News has contacted Egypt’s police regarding Mr Murphy’s claims of violence towards the group.
Mr Murphy previously said other Irish citizen were among those who had been stopped from entering Gaza.
“The world has watched a horrific genocide for the past 20 months. Since March, a total attempt of starvation,” he added.
“And that this is a peaceful march to demand that it be ended and demand that western governments stop their complicity.”
Appeal to foreign affairs minister
Mr Murphy’s partner, Councillor Jess Spear, had previously appealed to Ireland’s Foreign Affairs Minister and deputy premier Simon Harris to make a public statement on Mr Murphy’s detention.
She expressed “relief” that the group had been released from detention.
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The deadly road to Gaza aid point
She said: “However, they still want to reach Rafah to try and get humanitarian aid into Gaza. That has been the sole purpose of being in Egypt.
“Paul has appealed to Tanaiste Simon Harris to put pressure on the Egyptian authorities to let the marchers reach Rafah. The situation of the people of Gaza worsens by the day as they suffer starvation imposed by Israel.”
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