Heroic German Pilots Refuse to Deport Rejected Refugees
222 planned flights of deportation were stopped by pilots across Germany. The flights were reportedly carrying rejected asylum seekers.
The German pilots are being praised for not wanting to take part in the controversial return of the refugees to their home country. The asylum seekers are mostly from Afghanistan, which has been deemed a “safe country of origin” in some cases, despite ongoing violence and repression in parts of the country.
Between January and September, 85 of the refusals came from Germany’s main airline Lufthansa and its subsidiary Eurowings. About 40 took place at Dusseldorf airport, where the controversial deportations are regularly associated with protests on the runway. The majority of the canceled flights took place at Frankfurt Airport, Germany’s largest and most important port.
