Germany is planning to build a “deportation terminal” at one of its biggest airports to send migrants back to their home countries. The two-storey terminal at Munich International Airport, which will span five acres, will reportedly send up to 100 migrants back every day.
The terminal will be overseen by Germany’s federal police and could be built by the end of 2027. It will be staffed by up to 300 local police officers, 145 security guards and 90 public body officials. The news comes as around 24,000 people have been ordered to leave the Bavaria region.
As reported by the Daily Mail, the new terminal will also be used as a place for asylum applications to be processed. Anyone without proper documentation, apart from children and pregant women, would be turned away if they try to get into Germany.
Bavaria’s interior minister, Joachim Herrmann, told German newspaper Bild: “The proposed facility is organisationally necessary so that we can make deportations quicker and more efficient.”
While the mayor of Munich, Dieter Reiter, supports the new terminal, the Munich city council and the city’s Green party have voiced their opposition. Another factor hindering its development is that the airport is looking to build the site on land protected under local conservation laws.
Munich airport has had a “combined transit and deportation facility” since 2022. It is surrounded by barbed wire and has enough cells to hold 22 deportees and 29 ‘transit migrants’.
Germany’s chancellor Friedrich Merz previously ordered for undocumented migrants to be turned away from Germany. He pledged to clamp down on migration during his election campaign.
Under the new rules implemented by his administration, everyone without proper paperwork will be turned away at the border, apart from children and pregnant women. Merz also promised a significant increase in border force operatives, with local media reporting a further 3,000 officials will be enlisted, boosting the total number of border guards to 14,000.
Merz said in May: “The European Union must send a signal to those who are setting off for Europe without valid entry permits.
“And above all, we need to send a signal to the smuggling organisations that these routes will become much more difficult in the future – and that at some point, they will be closed altogether. That is the right and strong common signal.”