A look into why it is so hard for Germany to deport rejected asylum seekers from North Africa.When the first charter plane for rejected Tunisian asylum seekers took off in Leipzig on April 8th 2016, the German Interior Ministry hoped that discussion over faster deportations to North Africa would start to quieten down.

Shortly before, Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière had agreed to work with the Tunisian government and set up chartered planes with a maximum of 25 people per flight.

By the end of the year, there were just five further flights, with an average of 12 Tunisians on board.

But there are many more asylum seekers from North Africa who have been rejected by Germany: the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) turned down the applications of 8,363 people from the region between January and November last year, while during the same time frame, 368 people were deported.

This is because there are various barriers in the way of enforcing deportation orders, the Interior Ministry explains.

Of the more than half a million rejected asylum applicants, 52,000 were issued orders to leave the country. Most who are denied asylum receive temporary status as “tolerated”, due for example to health reasons. In other cases the country of origin will not accept the person, or the rejected applicant was missing identification documents – this is the most common reason, according to the government.

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