Germany deports Kurdish couple, leaves their three children behind
A refugee rights group in Germany says a Kurdish couple was deported to Turkey while their infant children remained in the country.
RastinewsA refugee rights group in Germany alleges that a Kurdish couple was deported to Turkey without their infant children.
The Hessen Refugee Council said the couple's three children were left in the care of Germany's Youth Welfare Office. The youngest is five months old; the other two are one and a half and three years old.
According to the council, the Youth Welfare Office had temporarily stripped the parents of custody back in February and appointed an official guardian for the children. At the end of June, the children were removed from their parents and placed elsewhere for their protection.
The council noted that the Youth Welfare Office's measure was not a final ruling but a temporary protective step, and that the parents had been offered support programs along with visitation rights.
'Could result in permanent separation'
The Hessen Refugee Council warned that with the parents deported while the children stayed behind in Germany, the family could end up permanently separated, effectively ending any chance of reunification.
Critics point out that this outcome was not the product of a final decision by the Youth Welfare Office or a family court, but resulted directly from an administrative deportation action.
Scherenberg: 'An absolute scandal'
Timmo Scherenberg, managing director of the Hessen Refugee Council, said: "The decision on whether children should be permanently separated from their parents for their own protection must rest solely with child welfare authorities — not with deportation authorities. Creating a fait accompli through deportation here is an absolute scandal."
Scherenberg said reuniting the children with their family becomes nearly impossible once the parents have been deported. "Once the mother and father have been sent out of the country, it is practically impossible for the children to return to the family. How can the Youth Welfare Office assess whether the parents' conduct has improved if the parents are no longer here and supervised visits can't take place? That assessment simply can't be made," he said.
'A re-entry ban for the parents'
The deported parents will also face a re-entry ban to Germany, making their chances of returning extremely slim. Meanwhile, the children cannot be sent to join their parents on their own without a fresh assessment from the Youth Welfare Office.
According to a report by DW, Scherenberg said family separations during deportations do happen from time to time, but stressed that this case was exceptional:
"We often see families torn apart in deportation cases. But I personally have never before encountered a case where three young children were left in state care in Germany while their parents were deported. Until now, we'd only heard of such cases happening in the United States. It was hard to imagine this happening in Germany."