One of Germany’s biggest airports is planning on building a ‘deportation terminal’ that will be used to send up to 100 migrants back to their home countries per day.
Munich International Airport is set to build a two-storey terminal on a five-acre parcel of land by the end of 2027 that will be used to clear a backlog of 24,000 people who have been ordered to leave the Bavaria region.
The new facility, according to the Times, will be overseen by Germany’s federal police. It will be staffed by up to 300 officers from Bavaria’s state police, 145 security guards and 90 officials from other public bodies.
On top of being a deportation centre, the new facility will also act as a place for asylum applications to be processed for those who arrive in Germany by plane.
Joachim Herrmann, Bavaria’s interior minister, told German newspaper Bild: ‘[The proposed facility] is organisationally necessary so that we can make deportations quicker and more efficient.’
But there are several factors expected to hinder its development.
The terminal has politically split the local authorities, which include both Munich city council and the council of nearby town Freising, understood to be hesitant over any expansion of the airport.
While the mayor of Munich, Dieter Reiter, who is a member of the Social Democratic Party, supports the project, the city’s Green party and two smaller left-leaning parties have voiced their opposition.
On top of this, the airport is looking to build the new deportation terminal on a parcel of land that is protected under local conservation laws.
Since 2022, Munich airport has had a ‘combined transit and deportation facility’ that is surrounded by barbed wire and has recreation and exercise rooms.
It has enough cells to hold up to 22 deportees, and can hold up to 29 ‘transit’ migrants who claim asylum after landing at the airport.
In May, Germany’s chancellor Friedrich Merz issued orders to turn undocumented migrants away from the nation.
The new rules would now see everyone without proper documentation, apart from children and pregnant women, turned away if they try to get into Germany from a neighbouring country.
Merz, who made the order on his first day in office, pledged during the election to crack down on migration.
This pledge came following a spate of knife and car attacks carried out by non-Germans that galvanised support for the hard-right AfD party.
