Introduction

This section documents the deportation complex of Germany by collecting available information about actors and places that are central to the processes of deportation. Its primary focus are charter deportations and the airlines and airports involved, but it also includes information that is relevant to deportations in general, such as the prisons used to detain those targeted by deportations. This documentation is still in its early stages and subject to change.

Charter deportations

Charter deportation operations are a central aspect of the escalating state efforts to increase deportation numbers. Governments thereby resort to charter flights to carry out deportations, which means that they are conducted using planes that have been specifically chartered for the purpose of deportation. Such flights differ from commercial flights in that there are no regular passengers and, in most cases, no independent observers on board that could report any human rights violations. On some charter deportation routes supervising and constraining the people deported is completely outsourced to private security guards. Charter deportations are the primary vehicle for mass deportations, allowing for a larger number of people to be deported at once. German authorities execute most of the charter deportations in the European Union.