Germany deported a man to Syria for the first time since the civil war broke out in that country in 2011, the interior ministry in Berlin said Tuesday.A Syrian immigrant previously convicted of criminal offences in Germany was flown to Damascus and handed over to Syrian authorities on Tuesday morning, the ministry said.For all the latest headlines, follow our Google News channel online or via the app.“Our society has a legitimate interest in ensuring that criminals leave our country,” Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt said in a press release.The deportation just before Christmas capped months of talks with Syria’s government, which mirrored similar efforts by Berlin to strike a deportation deal with the Taliban in Afghanistan.Human rights groups have criticized efforts to send immigrants back to either country, citing continued instability and evidence of rights abuses.But Germany’s conservative-led government has made the resumption of deportations to Syria a diplomatic priority