You should get rid of them to provide more metadata about this software.
debian/patches: 12 patches to forward upstream
low
Among the 14 debian patches
available in version 44+dfsg-8 of the package,
we noticed the following issues:
12 patches
where the metadata indicates that the patch has not yet been forwarded
upstream. You should either forward the patch upstream or update the
metadata to document its real status.
Standards version of the package is outdated.
wishlist
The package should be updated to follow the last version of Debian Policy
(Standards-Version 4.7.0 instead of
4.6.1).