A man who was one of 69 Afghans deported from Germany last week has been found dead in a Kabul hotel room after committing suicide, officials said Wednesday.

The death of the 23-year-old, who remains unidentified, has triggered calls for German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer to resign.

The man and the other Afghans were forced to return to Afghanistan on July 4 after not being granted asylum. They were sent back as Seehofer was pushing for tighter immigration controls within Chancellor Angela Merkel’s ruling coalition.

The Afghan man was found dead at a hotel used by the International Organization for Migration as a temporary shelter for returnees.

The IOM said “assisted voluntary return and reintegration” was preferable to deportations.

“Forced returns carry the stigma of failure, can encourage unsafe re-migration, and increase risks for hardships for the returnee,” the IOM said.

Germany’s largest pro-immigration advocacy group, Pro Asyl, said the failed asylum seeker came to Germany as a minor and lived there for 8 years. The government has not confirmed these details and there was no immediate comment from Seehofer.

The suicide sparked outrage on social media with some in Seehofer’s coalition calling for him to step down.

On Tuesday, Seehofer announced his “Migration Masterplan,” which calls for tougher border and migration control policies that are at odds with Merkel’s open-doors policy.

Merkel has faced intense criticism over her 2015 decision to allow a mass influx of migrants, many from the war-torn countries of Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria. Merkel’s open-door policy subsequently led to more than one million arrivals.

 
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