Migration: CSU wants to reform the basic right to asylum

After the federal election, the CSU is calling for a fundamental reform of the basic right to asylum. “We have to limit migration effectively. The individually enforceable right to asylum must be converted into an objective guarantee,” said party leader and Prime Minister Markus Söder of the German Press Agency in Munich. In the future, Germany must be able to decide for itself how many people can come and stay here.

CSU wants to abolish subsidiary protection

“We would like to abolish subsidiary protection status in order to return to the original spirit of the Geneva Refugee Convention,” said Söder. The reform will also make it easier to separate flight and labor migration. “The state must determine which skilled workers the country needs for the economy and from which country Germany accepts refugees within the framework of European regulations.”

People who provide valid reasons that they are at risk of serious harm in their country of origin – for example through the execution of the death penalty or the threat of torture – are entitled to subsidiary protection. Family members of those entitled to subsidiary protection can also apply for entry into Germany.

The demand should be included in the CSU election program

Söder called the request, which should also be anchored in the CSU’s election program, a “fundamental change”. “Not everyone in the world is allowed to or can sue here, but it’s exactly the opposite way. “We feel that our country is at the limit of its capacity – financially, logistically and also culturally.”

The CSU election program is to be presented in January as a supplement to the common Union program. The Bundestag is expected to be re-elected on February 23rd. There have also been calls from the CDU in the past for a change to asylum law.

Söder hopes for faster asylum procedures

“A new regulation will automatically shorten almost all asylum procedures,” said Söder. Every decision could be made more quickly if several courts no longer had to deal with each individual case. “The attractiveness of coming to Germany then decreases – as with many other countries in Europe.”

Germany must be able to decide for itself “through the government, through parliament, how many people we can take in,” said Söder. This will also mean that Germany can “finally” organize immigration well and sensibly: “Labor migration, which we need, and refugee migration, which we can help. But we cannot help the whole world alone.”

So far there is an individual right to asylum in Germany

According to the Basic Law, the right to asylum is clearly a so-called individual right. This means that the granting of a residence permit must not be subject to quantitative or financial restrictions.

The CSU had already questioned this principle in previous years with the argument that there was a risk of the state being overwhelmed. The demand for an upper limit as a result of the asylum crisis in 2015 caused a heated argument between the then Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) and the former CSU leader Horst Seehofer. Only after years of dispute did the two Union parties finally agree on an upper limit for refugees with the aim of accepting a maximum of 200,000 refugees per year.