Germany orders 20-month-old girl to leave due to bureaucratic snafu

A 20-month-old asylum seeker, Edona, was told to leave Germany within a week without the rest of her family because of a mess up in government bureaucracy, the Local reported yesterday.

Edona's parents, Eduart and Franga, had come to Germany from Albania to seek asylum and she was born 11 days after her parents' arrival in the Sauerland region in western Germany. However, the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) sent a letter for Edona, explaining that she had one week to leave Germany, the Local reported citing Der Westen, a daily paper. The reason is that she could not prove that she experienced war or persecution at home, local media reported.

Edona's family was shocked by the letter. After local media covered the story, which turned out to be an example of the complex and chaotic state of affairs at the BAMF, a spokesperson told The Local that "it was a mistake in sending out letters." BAMF's Christoph Sander said the whole family's application was rejected but only Edona had been informed for some reason and he added that the law regarding minors suggests that they cannot be deported separately from their parents.

As Albania has been listed as one of the "safe countries" in Germany last summer, asylum seekers should prove that they were persecuted otherwise they will be sent back to their home country. Edona's parents made an asylum application in 2014 because of a blood feud from another family.

Germany saw an unprecedented 1.1 million asylum seekers arrive last year, many of them fleeing conflicts in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.