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.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
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.
More from Sky News:
Why is worldwide migration higher than ever?
‘UK isn’t safe,’ says asylum seeker
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.”
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
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.
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
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.
Donald Trump has said that his 28-point peace plan for Ukraine is “by far” not the “final offer”, ahead of crisis talks in Geneva.
Meeting on the sidelines of a G20 summit in South Africa, European and other Western leaders scrambled to respond to the US president’s demand for Ukraine to accept the plan drawn up by the Trump administration and the Kremlin.
In a joint statement on Saturday, they said the plan announced on Friday could serve as a basis for talks to end Russia’s war in Ukraine but required “additional work”.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
How Ukraine peace plan came about
Follow the latest on the Ukraine peace plan
As a result, a meeting has been hastily convened in Geneva, Switzerland, on Sunday, where national security advisers from the E3 – France, Britain and Germany – will meet EU, US and Ukrainian officials for further discussions.
Ahead of the talks, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a video address to his nation that Ukrainian representatives at the talks “know how to protect Ukrainian national interests and exactly what is needed to prevent Russia from carrying out” another invasion.
“Real peace is always based on security and justice,” the Ukrainian leader added.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
PM: ‘More to do’ on US Ukraine peace plan
The 28-point peace plan closely resembles the list of demands repeatedly stated by the Kremlin since it launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine nearly four years ago and if adopted, would see Ukraine cede territory to Russia – and cut the size of its military.
Mr Trump has said he wants a response from Ukraine by Thursday, while suggesting an extension could be possible.
On Saturday, Mr Trump told reporters outside the White House that the plan was not the “final offer” when asked.
He said: “We’d like to get the peace, it should’ve happened a long time ago. The Ukraine war with Russia should’ve never happened. If I was president, it would have never happened. We’re trying to get it ended. One way or another, we have to get it ended.”
His secretary of state Marco Rubio insisted that the peace proposal was authored by the US, despite what a handful of senators have alleged.
“It is based on input from the Russian side. But it is also based on previous and ongoing input from Ukraine,” he said.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
The 28-point peace plan explained
Leaders have sought to balance praise for President Trump’s attempt to end the war with recognition that some terms in his proposal are unpalatable for Kyiv.
“There are many things that cannot simply be an American proposal, which requires broader consultation,” French
President Emmanuel Macron said on the sidelines of the G20, adding that an agreement had to allow for peace for Ukrainians and “security for all Europeans”.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz underlined the importance to Europe of supporting Ukraine.
“If Ukraine loses this war and possibly collapses, it will have an impact on European politics as a whole, on the entire European continent. And that is why we are so committed to this issue,” he said.
“There is currently an opportunity to end this war, but we are still quite a long way from a good outcome for everyone.”
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Keir Starmer calls for growth plan at G20
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer told reporters in Johannesburg: “We are concerned about [caps on military], because it’s fundamental that Ukraine has to be able to defend itself if there’s a ceasefire.”
He said the proposal “requires additional work”, adding: “And that’s why there’s been the agreement that in Geneva tomorrow [Sunday], you’ll have senior US personnel, you’ll have European NSAs [national security advisers], including the UK NSA, and obviously Ukrainians there to work further on the draft.”
Sir Keir also spoke to Mr Trump, relaying discussions held at G20 to the US leader, according to a Downing Street spokesperson, who added that the two leaders would speak again on Sunday.
Meanwhile, Sir Keir, who has defended his decision to fly to the G20 days before a difficult budget, said the role of the G20 is “critical at this moment”.
“The G20 has worked together before to fix fundamental problems in the global economy. We need to find ways to play a constructive role again today in the face of the world challenges,” he said.
“I’d like to see us come together around a five-point plan for growth that leaves no one behind.”
Sir Keir Starmer, Emmanuel Macron and Friedrich Merz at the G20 summit. Pic: PA
The US, however, is boycotting the talks.
The Trump administration made its opposition to South Africa’s G20 agenda clear earlier this year when the country started holding meetings ahead of the summit. South Africa gets to set the agenda as the country holding the rotating G20 presidency.
G20 leaders broke with tradition and adopted a declaration at the start of their summit – despite opposition from the US.
Vincent Magwenya, spokesman for South African president Cyril Ramaphosa, said a leaders’ declaration was adopted unanimously in Johannesburg.
The White House later accused South Africa of refusing to facilitate a smooth transition of the G20 presidency.
Pic: AP
Read more:
Analysis: Europe scrambles at G20 over Ukraine peace plane
G20 lands in South Africa: But who feels forgotten?
The G20 bloc was formed in 1999 as a bridge between rich and poor nations to confront global financial crises.
While it often operates in the shadow of the powerful Group of Seven nations, G20 members represent around 85% of the world’s economy, 75% of international trade and more than half the global population.
-
Sports2 years agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports3 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports2 years agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports3 years agoButton battles heat exhaustion in NASCAR debut
-
Sports3 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment3 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment1 year agoHere are the best electric bikes you can buy at every price level in October 2024