Some two-thirds of Germany's planned deportations fail to take place

Germany failed to carry out 60% of planned deportations last year, according to recent figures that prompted calls for tougher measures by conservative lawmakers.

Some 22,787 deportations succeeded while 32,855 attempts failed before the individuals concerned were handed over to the officials responsible for repatriation at the airports, the police confirmed to dpa on Saturday.

The most common reason for failure was that the police forces of the different federal states were unable to hand over the people to be deported without prior notice, affecting 21,341 people.

In 11,184 cases, the deportation request was cancelled.

Meanwhile 1,593 attempts failed after handover to officials at the airports.

The figures prompted lawmakers to weigh measures to reduce the number of failed deportations.

Of attempts that fail because the person in question could not be found, Hesse Interior Minister Roman Poseck proposed tracking the person's mobile phone. "It's not about placing everyone who is required to leave the country under general suspicion and surveillance," he told Sunday's edition of Die Welt newspaper, which reported the figures.

The measures would only take effect if the person required to leave the country could not be found, to locate them as quickly as possible and manage to deport them, he said.

Saxon Interior Minister Armin Schuster, likewise from the conservative Christian Democrats, backed the suggestion. "Mobile phone tracking can be an important addition to the tools available for enforcing deportation," he told the newspaper.

However, it would be even better if people required to leave the country were unable to go into hiding in the first place, he said.

He called for the EU to allow regular detention centres to be used again to detain people pending deportation.