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Germany to deport leader of banned Islamic centre

Germany is planning to deport the leader of an Islamic centre in Hamburg it banned in July over alleged links to extremist groups, an interior ministry spokeswoman said Thursday.

Published: 29 August 2024 11:44 CEST

Blue mosque in Hamburg

Police patrol outside the Blue Mosque housing the Islamic Centre in Hamburg after an early morning raid in July. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Daniel Bockwoldt

Investigators swooped on the Hamburg Islamic Centre five weeks ago after concluding it was an “Islamist extremist organisation” with links to Iran and Lebanon’s Hezbollah group.

Mohammad Mofatteh, 57, the former director of the centre, has been ordered to leave Germany within 14 days and faces deportation if he does not comply, the spokeswoman said.

He will not be allowed to re-enter Germany and could face up to three years in prison if he does.

Andy Grote, interior minister for the state of Hamburg, said Mofatteh’s deportation was “the next logical step” against the Hamburg Islamic Centre.

“As a top religious representative of the inhumane regime in Tehran, his time in Germany has come to an end,” he said.

On banning the centre in July, Germany’s interior ministry accused it of being a “direct representative of Iran’s supreme leader” and spreading Tehran’s ideology “in an aggressive and militant manner”.

The ministry also accused the centre of backing the “military and political dimension” of organisations like Hezbollah.

Germany considers Hezbollah a “Shiite terrorist organisation” and in 2020 banned Hezbollah from carrying out activities on its soil.

Iran reacted angrily to the accusations and last week shut down a German language institute in Tehran in what appeared to be a tit-for-tat move.

The move against Mofatteh comes with deportations high on the political agenda in Germany after a deadly knife attack in the western city of Solingen.

Three people were killed and eight injured in the rampage, allegedly carried out by a Syrian asylum seeker and claimed by the Islamic State group.

The attack has reignited a bitter debate about immigration in Germany, with Chancellor Olaf Scholz promising to “do everything we can to ensure that those who cannot and must not stay here in Germany are repatriated and deported”.

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How Hamburg is dealing with surge of German citizenship applications

More people than ever are applying for naturalisation in the city of Hamburg, new figures show.

According to local broadcaster NDR, more than 26,000 applications for naturalisation are currently pending at the city’s Office for Migration. In June alone, the number of applications submitted stood at around 3,000 – more than twice the number seen in the same period last year.

The new naturalisation law, which came into force at the end of June, is resulting in another surge of applications.

According to figures compiled by Bild newspaper this week, around 2,031 people submitted an application in Hamburg in the last four weeks, compared to 1,153 in the same period a year ago.

How is the city managing backlogs?

The Left parliamentary group recently submitted queries on this topic in Hamburg’s state parliament to the governing coalition of the Social Democrats (SPD) and Greens.

The Left says that the responsible office “has not been able to keep up with the increasing number of applications for a long time” and they are putting pressure on the Senate to do more.

According to the report, the number of pending naturalisation applications rose by around 4,000 to 26,453 between December 31st 2023 and June 30th this year.

Hamburg’s Interior Ministry said it has created 67 new posts to help with processing, 13 of which have not yet been filled.

This means that each employee is responsible for around 500 applications. The authority said all vacancies are to be filled from September.

So how long does it take to get your hands on a naturalisation certificate in Hamburg?

As is the norm in many German cities, it can take many months – or even longer.

“We currently have an average waiting time of 13 months for naturalisation – and the number of applications shows that the process will take considerably longer,” said Carola Ensslen, spokesperson for refugee policy for the Left Party.

READ ALSO: ‘How I finally got German citizenship in Berlin after six years of waiting’

Ensslen said that this needs to be sped up because getting citizenship means a lot to foreign residents. She said it provides “identification with Germany, a feeling of security and often a reunion with family after a long time”.

President Frank Walter-Steinmeier naturalisation ceremony Hamburg

President Frank Walter-Steinmeier (SPD) speaks at a naturalisation ceremony in Hamburg in 2018. Photo: picture alliance / Christian Charisius/dpa | Christian Charisius

“Anyone who arrives in Germany finds themselves in a constant loop of waiting – for an asylum decision, for an integration course, for certificates to be recognised, for a residence permit,” added Ensslen.

“This devastating situation must finally be fundamentally addressed.”

She said as well as getting more staff on board, this also involves reducing bureaucratic hurdles.

READ ALSO: Berlin receives over 5,000 German citizenship applications after law change

Hamburg sees steady rise in citizenship interest

According to Hamburg’s Ministry of the Interior, 12,735 applications for German citizenship were submitted to Hamburg in 2023 and there were 7,532 naturalisations.

In 2022 there were 10,698 applications and 6,298 naturalisations. In 2021 there were 9,533 applications and 5,252 naturalisations, and in 2020 there were 6,268 applications and 4,505 naturalisations.

Most recently, in the first six months of 2024, 8,649 applications for naturalisation were submitted in Hamburg.

The Senate attributes the recent surge to “a general increase in interest in German citizenship and the fact that, in addition to the high number of applications from Afghan nationals, a large number of Syrian nationals have fulfilled the requirements for naturalisation since December 2020”.

This is a trend seen across Germany. In 2023, people from 157 different countries decided to become German, according to official statistics.

But the largest group were people with a Syrian passport, with 75,500 Syrians gaining German citizenship last year – an increase of 27,100 compared with 2022.

READ ALSO: Who’s behind the latest surge of citizenship applications in Germany?

What can we expect following the law change?

June 27th 2024 was a historic moment in Germany as the citizenship reform came into force.

Anyone who is naturalised after this date falls under the new rules, which allow people to hold multiple nationalities. Previously, many non-EU nationals had to give their old passport up if they wanted to become German.

The law also reduced the standard residency period needed to apply from eight years to five, meaning more people now qualify to apply. And there’s even a fast-track route, which gives the green light for residents deemed well-integrated and with fluent German to apply after three years.

The city of Hamburg’s Interior Ministry said it can’t give an exact forecast on what to expect in the second half of this year.

However, there has already been a significant increase in the number of applications since the reform came into force, so the city expects that more people will take the plunge to apply to become German in the coming months. Just don’t expect the process to be quick.

READ ALSO: The citizenship waiting times and backlogs in major German cities

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