Migration: Faeser strictly against the abolition of the individual right to asylum

Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser has rejected calls for a restriction or abolition of the individual right to asylum. “Challenging the individual right to asylum in a populist manner does not solve any of the current problems and does not prevent any of the refugee movements that we are experiencing in the world,” the SPD politician told the “Spiegel”. “I am strictly against abolishing the individual right to asylum.”

In Germany, asylum seekers can refer to the Basic Law. “People who are politically persecuted enjoy the right to asylum,” says Article 16a. Each and every asylum seeker is checked individually to determine whether they are being subjected to political persecution.

Faeser went on to say that politically persecuted people enjoy asylum under the Basic Law, which is a lesson learned from the terror of National Socialism. “We Germans in particular have a special responsibility to provide protection for those persecuted by war and terror. During the Nazi era, persecuted Germans received protection in other countries. We are also bound by international law, the European Convention on Human Rights and the Geneva Refugee Convention.”

Criticism of party colleagues

Faeser also criticized her party colleague, former SPD leader Sigmar Gabriel. Last week, he called for a limit on immigration. The attempt to react to the modern phenomenon of mass exodus with an individual right to asylum and the Geneva Refugee Convention does not lead to success, he told the editorial network Germany (RND).

CDU presidium member Jens Spahn also pleaded for less immigration and better protection of the EU’s external borders at the weekend. “Germany needs a break from this completely uncontrolled asylum migration. Experience shows that we cannot significantly reduce the numbers through deportations. That’s why a clear signal is needed at the EU’s external border: nobody can go any further on this path,” said Spahn of “Bild am Sonntag”. He advocated a quota solution, according to which Europe should take in and distribute 300,000 to 500,000 refugees a year.

Deep division in Europe “overcome”

Faeser now replied in the “Spiegel” that the traffic light coalition had “shown new ways for qualified immigration and passed a modern immigration law for skilled workers”. In addition, “an agreement has finally been reached for a common European asylum system, thereby overcoming a deep division in Europe”. The federal government is currently negotiating “intensively” with countries of origin about migration agreements that are intended to enable legal migration and limit irregular migration, said Faeser.

The parliamentary manager of the FDP parliamentary group, Stephan Thomae, rejected an upper limit as an instrument of migration policy. “It won’t work,” he told MDR. “The ceiling is an attempt at a mathematical solution to a human or legal problem.”