Two Irish citizens living in Berlin have been issued with deportation orders and instructed to leave Germany before April 21st after facing charges over alleged actions at pro-Palestinian protests.
Lawyers for their case have raised concerns that the deportation orders undermine civil liberties for EU citizens living in Germany, as neither have been convicted of any criminal offences in the German courts.
Bert Murray (31) and Shane O’Brien (29) have been attending protests in support of Palestinians since the Israel-Hamas conflict began in October 2023.
O’Brien was arrested by German police at a protest in Berlin last October. Murray has been accused by police of using banned slogans in support of Palestinians in Gaza at the protests.
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Both Irish citizens, along with two others – a US national and a Polish citizen – have been issued with deportation orders under German migration law in March and have been given a deadline of April 21st to leave the country.
Lawyers for the two Irish citizens are trying to secure court injunctions in an attempt to halt the orders and are appealing the deportations.
Three of the four people subjected to the deportation orders are EU citizens and face having to leave Germany, despite EU citizens being allowed to move freely between EU member states.
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Murray moved to Berlin in May 2022 and has been working in a cafe and as an artist. O’Brien, who is fluent in German and works as a software engineer, has lived in Germany for a number of years.
When demonstrations against Israel’s attacks on Gaza began, both were living in Neukölln, a Berlin neighbourhood with a large Middle Eastern immigrant community.
O’Brien acted as a volunteer steward during protests where, he said, he would “keep the crowd on the road, keep them away from the footpath [and] de-escalate if there’s any problem”.
In one incident at a protest in October 2024, O’Brien was punched in the face by a police officer and his nose was broken. The Irish Times has seen video footage to corroborate this incident.
Murray attended several protests and later received police letters, with one accusing the Irish citizen of having a T-shirt with the slogan – “From Risa to the Spree” – a play on the slogan “from the river to the sea” that has been outlawed in Germany. Risa is a popular chicken shop in Berlin.
The investigation was subsequently dismissed.
O’Brien was previously brought to court charged with insulting a police officer. He was accused of calling the officer a “fascist”, though he was acquitted of that charge.
There are several other outstanding charges against him.
The deportation orders refer to the October 7th, 2023 attack by militant group Hamas on Israel and alleges the behaviour of both Irish citizens can be seen as an act of support – “albeit only indirectly” – of organisations such as Hamas and “front” pro-Hamas organisations in Germany and other parts of Europe.
The Irish pair reject the allegations made by the German authorities.
“I refute all the accusations against me,” said Murray.
On accusations of anti-Semitism cited in his deportation order, O’Brien rejected the allegations, saying they were “so morally bankrupt it doesn’t merit a response”.
A lawyer representing all four people facing deportation, Alexander Gorski of the European Legal Support Centre, said the allegations were “unfounded”.
He said the deportation orders were evidence of the Berlin authorities “pushing the limits to see what they can get away it”.
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Gorski said the orders – based on outstanding charges where convictions have not been secured – demonstrate overreach by the state of Berlin whose senate administration oversees immigration enforcement.
“Why? Because it’s also incredibly hard under European Union law,” he said. “By those standards, it’s incredibly hard to issue.”
As a consequence, the orders were “not an expulsion order” but “the removal of the right to free movement”, said Gorski.
“The threshold for this is very high. Here, the crazy thing is none of the people affected – of the four people affected right now, three are European Union [citizens] – none of them have a criminal conviction – not one,” he said.
Internal correspondence – seen by The Irish Times – shows an official in Berlin’s immigration office pushing back on an initial request from Berlin’s interior department for the deportation orders against the Irish citizens, questioning the legality of the orders under EU law.
An official at the interior department rejected this and subsequently directed the immigration official to pursue the deportation order.
In December the immigration official told the interior department “the mere fact of a criminal conviction is not sufficient to justify the aforementioned decisions or measures”.
The official said even if the protesters posed a danger to public order, emerging from police investigations initiated against them, there was “still a lack of legally binding convictions that would justify a corresponding actual and sufficiently serious danger”.
The official for the interior department rebuked the immigration official in an email in response.
“It is unusual to contradict a supervisory directive from the management in this way. I consider the email a remonstration, which I nevertheless reject,” said the interior department official, rejecting the legal opinion.
“Continued freedom of movement for these individuals cannot be justified for reasons of public order and security alone; the criminal conviction is irrelevant,” said the official in response.
“Appropriate legal proceedings may be necessary.”
Murray said they attended the pro-Palestinian protest in part to express solidarity with the Middle Eastern community in Neukölln.
“People wanted to gather, grieve and light candles. This was my neighbourhood and my community, these were our neighbours,” said the Irish citizen.
The Irish immigrant community in Berlin makes up a small but significant part of the pro-Palestine solidarity movement in the German capital.
In response to queries from The Irish Times, a spokesman for the Berlin’s immigration office said that it did not comment on inquiries “regarding individual administrative procedures and measures that affect specific individuals for data protection reasons”.
He noted that EU citizens could lose their right to freedom of movement, referring to a general 964-page information note on “Staying in Berlin”.
Berlin’s interior department said any decision to terminate someone’s residency “must always be assessed based on the requirements of the underlying legal provisions”.
“Such measures, as in the present case, are decisions made on a case-by-case basis, taking into account all relevant information available on the individual.
“The assessment takes into account, among other things, the danger posed by the person, their social, professional and cultural integration, as well as the purpose and duration of their stay.
“Any criminal convictions will be taken into account in the respective assessment. However, they do not constitute a prerequisite for the imposition of appropriate measures,” it said.
