Deportation Deal With Germany Criticised

The Kurdish Organisation for Human Rights has criticised a new agreement between Syria and Germany to clamp down on illegal immigrants.



Under the pact, which the German and Syrian interior ministries signed on July 14, the two governments will accept any national who is deported from the other country on the grounds of illegal residence.



The agreement could affect 7,000 illegal immigrants from Syria who are living in Germany, the organisation maintained in a statement issued by its German branch on July 15.



Germany is home to an estimated 500,000 Kurds, mostly from Turkey.



The organisation called the agreement unfair, arguing that the conditions that led Kurds to leave Syria in the first place had not changed. Thousands of Kurds living there do not have citizenship, and the minority faces economic and political problems, it said.



The group condemned a similar decision by Switzerland and called on human rights organisations to stop deportations of immigrants from that country.