Germany’s special representative for migration agreements, Joachim Stamp, has warned refugees living in Germany against taking trips back to their homelands as these might jeopardize their legal status as refugees.
“Germany must remain open to the world, but not stupid,” Stamp told the German tabloid Bild. “The authorities must ensure that people who have applied for protection here but then go on holiday to their home country immediately lose their protected status and can no longer stay in Germany. Full stop.”
Hamburg’s Interior Senator Andy Grote told DPA news agency that refugees traveling back to the country in which they claim to have been the victim of persecution would of course also call into question their protection status.
Meanwhile, the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) noted that trips to a refugee’s country of origin may be permitted in individual cases – for example due to a serious illness or the death of close family members.
