Migration: Scholz wants to speed up asylum procedures

Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) wants to speed up the decision-making process on asylum applications. During a visit to the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (Bamf), he also promised political efforts, for example to improve the return of asylum seekers in the course of the so-called Dublin procedure at European level. “We must achieve a change in practice here,” said Scholz in Nuremberg. He is in “ongoing discussions” with his colleagues in several European countries.

Employees of the Federal Office had previously expressed their dissatisfaction with the current practice to the Chancellor. Some countries, including Italy, are currently accepting no or only a small number of refugees, although they are obliged to accept them under the Dublin Agreement. According to the Dublin Regulation, only one EU state is responsible for examining and processing asylum applications – usually the country on whose soil the asylum seeker first set foot on European soil.

Bavaria’s Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann (CSU) called for a tougher approach towards countries like Italy. “For years, Italy in particular has refused to take back asylum seekers who are in the Dublin procedure. This is a permanent, blatant violation of current European law,” he said. “Scholz must finally act instead of talk,” said the CSU politician. The federal government must maintain the existing border controls until the EU’s external borders are permanently secured and the functionality of the Dublin system is sustainably improved. “And the federal government must finally instruct the federal police to turn people back at the internal borders even if they make an asylum request.” This is because refugees at the German land borders come without exception from safe transit states.

Scholz, for his part, called for more speed in the processing of asylum applications. This is crucial, also for acceptance among the population. “We must ensure that we are state of the art,” said the Chancellor with regard to digitalization. It must be ensured that the digital speed remains high, and artificial intelligence also plays a role. A crucial question is equipping the Federal Office with sufficient staff. This has been taken into account in both the previous federal budget and the new budget.

Scholz: The speed of Rhineland-Palatinate must be the goal in court proceedings

It is also important that asylum applications are submitted at the state level in the initial reception centers – before being distributed to the municipalities. “It is crucial that this is achieved across the board,” said Scholz. This could result in a “dramatic acceleration” of the process. He also spoke out in favor of speeding up administrative court proceedings. In Rhineland-Palatinate, the first instance in such proceedings is completed in less than six months. However, the national average is 20 months. “The goal must be for the whole of Germany to have the speed of court proceedings that is now the practice in Rhineland-Palatinate.”

The number of asylum applications in Germany is declining again this year, but at a high level. From January to June, 121,000 applications for asylum were submitted – almost 20 percent fewer than in the same period last year. Most came from Syria, Afghanistan and Turkey.

Decisions have already been made on over 150,000 applications this year. The protection rate was 47 percent. Last year, a total of 351,000 initial applications were submitted. The Federal Office’s current staff of 8,000 employees is designed to handle 230,000 applications. A temporary increase of 1,000 people was already approved in the last budget. The record number of applications was 745,000 in 2016 as a result of the civil war in Syria.