Germany Deports Syrian Criminal for First Time Since 2011

Germany has deported a Syrian criminal to his home country for the first time in more than a decade, marking the country’s first such return since the outbreak of the Syrian civil war in 2011.

The deportation took place on Tuesday, when the man was flown to Syria’s capital, Damascus, on a scheduled flight and handed over to local authorities, the Federal Ministry of the Interior in Berlin said. The Bild newspaper first reported the case.

According to Bild, the man is a Syrian national born in 1988 who had lived in Germany for several years. He was most recently imprisoned in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia after being convicted of aggravated robbery, assault, and extortion. {snip}

{snip}

On the same day, another convicted offender was deported to Afghanistan. That individual had been imprisoned in Bavaria for crimes including intentional bodily harm, marking the second deportation to Afghanistan within a week.

{snip}