Digital Surveillance and Deportation Procedures in Germany (netzpolitik.org)

• Use of invasive smartphone data extraction on long-term residents.
• Bureaucratic inertia despite legal and practical barriers to deportation.
• Critique of proportionality in digital immigration control systems.

"The case of an Eritrean national living in Germany for over 40 years highlights the controversial use of smartphone data extraction by immigration authorities. Despite deportation to Eritrea being practically impossible, local authorities continue to enforce stringent digital surveillance measures while the individual is detained. This case underscores the tension between administrative efficiency and the fundamental rights of long-term residents, illustrating a bureaucratic machinery that prioritizes data collection even when it fails to facilitate the stated objective of residential status termination."