German AfD faces probe over fake deportation notices

A chapter of the far-right Alternative for Germany, or AfD, party in the southwestern city of Karlsruhe has drawn criticism for sending migrants mock deportation notices designed as plane tickets to their "safe country of origin".

Residents of immigrant neighborhoods in Karlsruhe received flyers marked "In your home country, it's also nice" with a mock departure date set for Germany's Feb 23 election day.

The reverse side of the flyers lists the AfD's core migration policies, including deportation of illegal immigrants and preventing what they term the "Islamization" of Germany.

After German newspaper Die Zeit reported that the AfD had distributed the flyers addressed to "illegal immigrants", Karlsruhe police on Tuesday launched an investigation into potential incitement against foreigners.

While the Karlsruhe AfD branch defended the flyers as legal and denied targeting specific recipients, the party's national office has distanced itself from the campaign, Die Zeit reported.

Marc Bernhard of the Karlsruhe AfD acknowledged printing between 20,000 and 30,000 flyers.

"The election flyer is being distributed in Karlsruhe in as large numbers as possible and without any special requirements or restrictions," he said.

Karlsruhe's center-left mayor Frank Mentrup condemned the campaign, saying "finding such notes in the letterbox reinforces a feeling of insecurity and fear" among residents.

Green Party member Beate Hoeft, who reported being in contact with an affected family, shared the flyer on Instagram.

"People from a migrant background in the Karlsruhe region found this in their letterboxes," she wrote, adding hashtags reading "No AfD", "Protect democracy", and "Beware the beginnings".

"Nobody will come to Germany if they have the feeling that racism rules here, and that is pure racism," Greens chancellor candidate Robert Habeck said on Tuesday.

At a weekend party convention, the AfD openly endorsed "remigration", the same policy that sparked nationwide protests against the party just one year ago.

AfD chancellor candidate Alice Weidel promised "large-scale repatriations" if the party gains power.

Germany's Interior Minister Nancy Faeser has proposed offering Syrian refugees "exploratory" flights to visit their homeland in the wake of Bashar al-Assad's fall from power last month, reported The Daily Telegraph.

Germany, which accepted the largest Syrian refugee population outside the Middle East during the 2015 migration wave when millions of people fled Syria's civil war, now faces divided responses from its Syrian community, with some eager to return while others prefer to stay in their adopted home.

Despite polling second at 21 percent behind the main conservative alliance of the Christian Democratic Union and Christian Social Union, the AfD, which has been classified by authorities as a suspected extremist group, faces isolation, with all mainstream parties refusing coalition talks.