The Afghan asylum seeker who was convicted for raping an 11-year-old girl in the central German town of Neustrelitz in January is still in the country, and it appears he will face no threat of deportation.
The controversial decision to allow him to remain on German territory is due to the “special protection of minors within the Dublin III Agreement,” according to Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania’s Interior Minister Christian Pegel (SPD). In addition, the nationality of the convicted sex offender has not been completely clarified, so while the man is listed as an Afghan, the German government is reportedly unsure of that designation, reported local German newspaper Nordkurier.
As Remix News previously reported, the Afghan migrant, who entered Germany as an unaccompanied minor, was convicted in July of this year, but outrage followed after he was only given a suspended sentence and served no jail time. There was no record of his actual age at the time of his arrest, and given that a huge number of migrants lied about their age upon entering Germany, a doctor was asked to determine his age, which he estimated at 16. Due to his status as a “minor,” he was given a relatively light sentence.
Police believe the perpetrator and the 11-year-old victim were probably loosely acquainted and likely on a date. It is still unclear whether they knew each other through a circle of acquaintances or had met before the incident.
The 16-year-old entered the country in 2021 and applied for asylum, the state government said in response to a request from the conservative Alternative for Germany (AfD) parliamentary group. However, the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) said that an Afghan had previously submitted a similar asylum application in Bulgaria, and that the man may have been in Bulgaria at the time, meaning that he likely should have never been allowed to enter Germany in the first place.
The district court in Waren had sentenced the Afghan to a suspended sentence of two years for raping the child. Politicians decried the decision at the time.
“I can more than understand that most citizens find this punishment too mild,” said Philipp Amthor, the local CDU Bundestag member, as reported by BILD. “Of course, you always have to look at the circumstances of the individual case, but a suspended sentence for the rape of an 11-year-old girl is hardly compatible with the public’s sense of justice,” the politician added.
Often, despite committing serious crimes, migrants face no deportation risk in Europe, such as in the case in Sweden where a 39-year-old migrant raped a 9-year-old girl but was allowed to remain in the country because authorities approved his citizenship before the incident. It is also not the only case involving an Afghan raping an 11-year-old girl in Germany, with a similar case occurring in 2018. In that case, the girl was a special-needs student, and the 22-year-old asylum seeker raped her with two accomplices. In general, foreigners in Germany are responsible for a highly disproportionate amount of rape and sexual assault cases.
Overall, Germany has a poor record on deportations, even for those individuals convicted of crimes. Over 230,000 foreigners in Germany are facing deportation orders but are allowed to remain in the country under a “tolerated” status.