Kurdish young man, Muhammed Tunç, risks deportation next month

The state government of Baden-Württemberg remains firm: a Kurdish young man, Muhammed Tunç from Ulm, whose deportation to Turkey has been suspended twice, is to be flown to Turkey soon. According to Tunç, who is still in the Pforzheim deportation prison, the charter plane he will be put on is scheduled to take off on 7 April. The case of the activist has scarily attracted the attention of ultra-nationalists in Turkey and he has even been publicly threatened by those close to the “Grey Wolves”. However, the authorities are stubbornly sticking to their decision to deport him.

Tunç listed as “enemy” in Turkey

Muhammed Tunç was born and raised in Ulm in 1989 and has Turkish citizenship. In Turkey, he is exposed to the risk of political persecution, imprisonment and torture because of his pro-Kurdish activities in Germany. However, the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Justice does not want to accept that. The authorities considers the deportation to be justifiable because of a “criminal offense” in connection with two court sentences handed down after clashes with Turkish nationalists associated with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s party. According to Tunç, his name is known to the authorities in Turkey as an “enemy”.

Criticism of prison conditions in the Pforzheim detention center

Tunç criticized in a message he sent from Pforzheim the conditions of the detention facility, which do not correspond to European standards. The refugee council of Badem-Württemberg recently made a similar statement and called on the state to house deportees in different conditions.

Nine deportation detainees on hunger strike

According to Muhammed Tunç, nine people pending deportation in Pforzheim detention have been on a hunger strike since Friday. “Almost everyone here, like me, has been held up for several weeks and nothing is moving in their proceedings,” wrote Tunç.