Germany’s most famous migrant shows how the state is failing

His “proud” record has been listed as over 60 cases of personal injury, property damage, theft, trespassing, drugs, insults and resistance to police officers. But the chances of getting the criminal migrant deported remain slim.

The story of T. begins in 2014, when he arrived to Germany via Italy and Switzerland. After the revolution in Libya, his father and two brothers were killed by militia, Abode maintains. He was the only member of his family who had managed to escape.

In Germany, he was finally assigned to the district of Bautzen. However, as early as September 2016, the authorities rejected his application for asylum. Due to various contradictory statements and the political situation – his home region, for example, was not threatened at all – the authorities saw no need to recognize the Libyan as a refugee.

The next highest instance, the Dresden Administrative Court, confirmed the decision. Since then Abode has complained to all instances as well as causing non-stop trouble. He would either be implicated in stealing a cell phone, or indiscriminately bumping into a car door. At some point even the city of Bautzen got fed up with the troublemaker, and in August 2017, he was issued with a three-month stay ban.

In the summer of 2016, there were heavy riots between migrants and Germans at the Bautzener Kornmarkt. Right in the middle of it all was none other than King Abode. In the months to follow, his criminal record expanded steadily.

The Libyan terrorized the town for months resulting in persistent civil complaints after a series of assaults. He was transferred to an accommodation in Radeberg, but that did not suit him and he returned standing on the roof of the asylum home on the Flinzstrasse, pretending to be a victim of German authorities and threatened to jump.

As the accommodation in Radeberg was closed, the residents were redistributed and his three-month residence ban expired. “At present, no renewed ban on residence is considered necessary for the person concerned,” explained Matthias Almert from the Bautzen Town Hall.

His case has elicited international attention. One month after his ban on the city, journalists from the New York Times release a sentimental video in which they question him about the riots. His dubious justification was that “Germans” in Bautzen had attacked him repeatedly and even when he tried to call the police, the officials would not respond. So he had to take matters into his own hands, he claimed.

The public prosecutor Dresden has launched several procedures against against the migrant since this attempt at emotional blackmailing. In one of the trials, he was fined 400 euros and his second imprisonment of eight months. But the judgment is not yet final, as Abode’s lawyer has already appealed.

The remaining proceedings have been discontinued or handed over to the public prosecutor’s office Görlitz.

But in Görlitz the perpetrator is no stranger either. There he faces at least 61 charges, nine of which went to court, according to authorities. The long list of micro-offenses had forced the city of Bautzen in September 2018 to impose a residence ban on him.

This measure did not impress Abode much. In a shaky mobile phone video, which he took himself, he threatens authorities: “Police, I have no respect for you, I’ll fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck you! I will stay here in Germany.”

But how can it be that someone like T. has not yet been deported? First of all, he has no passport. “The Libyan authorities have meanwhile signaled their participation in passport procurement measures through the assistance of the Center for the Support of Return,” reported the Saxony State Directorate when approached by Berlin weekly Junge Freiheit.

The Libyan embassy is also trying to help. In spite of this, “the current security situation in Libya continues to suggest that a timely deportation will not be possible”. T. thus continues to live in his communal shelter in Kamenz – at the expense of the German taxpayer.

On August 22, he will have to appear before the district court Bautzen again. The allegations range from several cases of personal injury, property damage, insult and trespassing.