Deportation protest day: about 500 rally at Leipzig/Halle airport

Activist groups protested against deportations at several German airports on Saturday. Around 500 people gathered in the entrance area of Leipzig/Halle airport, a spokesperson for the organising alliance told the Protestant news agency epd. Actions had also been announced at airports in Frankfurt, Cologne/Bonn, Munich, Duesseldorf, Hanover and Berlin. The protest day, titled "Nationwide against deportation madness", was organised by various initiatives.

In Leipzig, the protest targeted charter deportation flights to Afghanistan. "It is and remains scandalous that these deportations are carried out in cooperation with the Taliban," alliance spokesperson Luca Mueller said ahead of the event. In Munich, demonstrators focused on a planned deportation terminal at the airport; according to the taz newspaper, similar facilities are planned in Frankfurt and at Berlin's BER. The groups also criticised spending cuts in social and health services while large sums go to deportations.

According to taz, deportations from Germany nearly doubled between 2022 and 2025 to about 23,000 a year, before falling slightly recently. Another issue raised was the impact of the reform of the Common European Asylum System (CEAS). Police figures on turnout were not immediately available.