There are stories that make even seasoned observers pause. Cases so cruel in their banality that you feel as if you’ve stepped into the wrong movie. This is one of those cases. And that says a lot – because in recent months, we’ve seen plenty: we’ve pored over court files, followed deportation flights to El Salvador, documented incidents in Guatemala, read dossiers on ICE raids in which no judge dared to intervene. But this case – sadly not the only one – happened in Germany.
Hayat A., 61 years old, gravely ill, lived in Miltenberg, surrounded by her sons. She had already battled cancer, suffered from asthma, a slipped disc. At the end of March came the second diagnosis: metastases in the liver, urgent surgery required. Six hours later, she was on a plane. Deported – straight from the clinic. To Bulgaria. At night, under police escort, without goodbyes, without perspective. Germany, 2025.
What has to happen for a country to lose the last remnant of its decency? That question presents itself with brutal clarity when you read the case of Hayat A. A woman who can no longer go to the bathroom on her own is torn from her environment in pain. Her son, who wants to accompany her, is blocked by police cars. The clinic where she lies hands her over to the officers as if she were a file, not a human being. This is Germany in its rule-of-law costume, in the deportation chamber between the Dublin Regulation and cold populism. Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann speaks of “enforcement,” the BAMF refers to “adequate medical standards” in Bulgaria. And a court must ultimately decide whether someone is allowed to die or not.
This Germany is not just tired. It seems intoxicated. By order, by legal codes, by a sense of duty fulfilled. You get the impression that deportations are now celebrated like trophies. Anyone still breathing is fit for transport. Anyone in pain doesn’t need asylum. And anyone sick apparently qualifies best for statistical disappearance. You get the impression that it has become enjoyable. The state as an alienation machine, as a technocratic administrator of cruelty. The weakest in society are easy to grab because they cannot fight back. And that is not a side effect, but part of the logic. The more visible the suffering, the more relentless the grip. The more helpless the person, the more determined the state.
What remains? A flight back to Germany, court-ordered, after the Administrative Court of Würzburg ruled against the BAMF. Because medical care in Bulgaria is not “adequate” for severely ill cancer patients. Because what happened should not happen in a state governed by the rule of law. Because there are people who fight back. And because there are judges who still look. But is that enough? Is one judgment enough to stand against the logic of a deportation machinery that now also reaches into hospitals? It feels like a drop of justice in a sea of political cynicism.
The case of Hayat A. is no longer an isolated incident. It is a symbol. For a country losing itself. For a politics that prefers delivering numbers over taking responsibility. For a right-wing populism that is no longer growing at the margins, but has arrived at the center.
America has its Trump. Germany has its frenzy. The deportation took place back in March – how fitting.
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