Illegal immigrants tend to discard their passports as a way to prevent authorities from confirming their identities and delay deportation. In an effort to plug that hole in the system, German police are beginning to examine how to deport people without papers. -Vasilis Chronopoulos   

The President of Germany’s Federal Police, Dieter Romann, says that if a missing passport hinders the deportation of an illegal alien believed to pose a terrorist threat, as was the case with Berlin terror suspect Anis Amri, then Germany should issue temporary ID papers itself. So-called laissez-passer are accepted within the EU and have a tradition within Europe.

“It used to be enough to issue a national and European EU laissez-passer,” Dieter Romann said in an interview with the Deutschlandfunk radio station on Sunday. “Germany could do that by itself.”

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