Germany is deporting a stateless 31-year-old man who has lived in Germany for 30 years (source one, source two). He was born in The Netherlands from Yugoslav refugees and moved to Germany when he was eight months old, but is being deported to Serbia, a country where he has never been.
Why would Serbia allow this man to enter the country? It would seem that, being stateless, the man has no right to enter Serbia without a visa, so I don't understand how he can be deported there.
Article 23 of Serbian Nationality Law
stipulates that any foreign national with Serbian descent has the right to acquire Serbian citizenship by written request.
If the person's "Yugoslav" parents were of Serbian decent this Article would apply to him. Recognizing him as a foreign born Serbian, Serbia is accepting one of its own people back to "the homeland".
See also, Acquiring Serbian Citizenship by Descent.
German news calls the person Robert A., in line with the practice not to publish full names in such cases unless they have special relevance.
According to news reports, the parents of Robert came from Yugoslavia and fled during the breakup of that country. Robert was born in the Netherlands but did not qualify for Dutch citizenship. Serbia has not acknowledged Serbian citizenship. His parents moved to Germany, but they did not get permanent residency for him. Germany now wants to deport Robert.
Why would Serbia accept Robert? The EU wants to deport many people to Serbia, and Serbia wants reasonably good relations with the EU. They are bargaining with each other, and Robert is a pawn on that field.
I know nothing about this specific case but I did use to deal with deportation and removing people from the UK. In my experience if someone does not have a valid travel document, you do not just stick them on a flight and hope for the best. Instead you contact the authorities for the other country and discuss whether they will take the person. In this case that seems likely to be based on an apparent claim to Serbian nationality by descent, having parents born there. If the Serbs agree to take the person they are likely to issue a one way travel document allowing him entry. That deals with the airlines concerns.
It’s unusual to deport someone who has been in another country for 30 years (legally or otherwise). Usually that only happens when someone has a serious criminal record. Perhaps that applies in this case and he is in custody? There are European wide arrangements for some foreign nationals to be sent to their native country early, to serve their sentences there. Perhaps that’s happening in this case?
Germany is currently running a campaign against illegal immigration to appease the general public and reduce AfD’s electoral prospects. It started with Scholz’s statement in August that made it sound like Germany is about to get serious about immigration law enforcement:
Mr Scholz also said his government would have to do "everything we can to ensure that those who cannot and should not stay here in Germany are repatriated and deported" and that deportations would be sped up if necessary.
In late August they’ve deported 28 convicted Afghani criminals back to Afghanistan, despite not recognizing the Taliban government. And now “Robert A.” became an unlucky scapegoat (out of millions of illegal immigrants) whose deportation will be used to prove that Scholz is “tough on immigration”.
There’s no public proof but we can reasonably expect that Serbia will be paid handsomely for their cooperation, via EU/German grants, assistance with speeding up EU membership or other similar favors. It doesn’t even have to be a direct quid-pro-quo: Serbian politicians understand all too well that accepting a single Yugoslav man is a tiny price to pay for future German concessions.
