According to the Union’s demands: Faeser invites you to the refugee summit

States and municipalities often barely manage to accommodate refugees from the Ukraine and asylum seekers. Following demands from the Union, Federal Interior Minister Faeser has now announced a new refugee summit in Berlin.

Because of the difficulties in accommodating refugees, Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser has announced a top-level meeting in her ministry. She said to him ARD Capital Studio: “We last met in November at the federal level – and I will now invite you to another refugee summit.” According to the SPD politician, it is about looking directly with the municipalities again to see what can be done.

She sees “that there is still a need for action,” said Faeser on the ZDF program “Berlin direct”. She will send out the invitations this week, “because I think we have to do everything we can to relieve the local authorities in a joint effort.” The Interior Minister did not name a date for the meeting.

“Refugee policy must be a top priority”

The Union had previously pushed for a federal and state refugee summit. The Prime Minister of Hesse, Boris Rhein, called for Report from Berlin, Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) must “make the issue a top priority now”. He has the impression that the federal government has not yet realized the difficult situation in which the federal states and local authorities are. The pressure is currently enormous, emphasized the CDU politician.

At the refugee summit, in addition to financial support from the federal government, it must also be discussed how migration and immigration can be better controlled and also limited. “The key to this lies exclusively in Berlin. The federal states do not have it in their hands,” said Rhein. “And the federal states and the municipal family are currently shouldering the burden alone.”

Scholz calls for more consistent deportation

Meanwhile, the calls for a reorientation of refugee and migration policy are also getting louder from the ranks of the traffic light coalition. Chancellor Scholz called for a more consistent deportation of rejected asylum seekers.

It is now a matter of “closing very tangible agreements with countries of origin about the return of their citizens who cannot stay here,” said the SPD politician. In return, Germany is opening up legal channels for skilled workers from these countries to come to the Federal Republic, Scholz told the “Bild am Sonntag”.

Transfer of asylum procedures to Africa?

According to the new special representative for migration agreements, Joachim Stamp, the federal government also wants to examine the transfer of asylum procedures to Africa. “Then people rescued on the Mediterranean would be taken to North Africa for their procedures,” said the FDP politician to the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Sunday newspaper”.

This should be done in compliance with the Geneva Refugee Convention and the European Convention on Human Rights. Stamp acknowledged that this would require a great deal of diplomacy and a long lead time. “It’s not about a rush job like former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson did with Rwanda.” International standards must also be maintained in Africa. It is clear that a country like Libya, for example, cannot be a partner in its current state, he stressed.

As many asylum applications as in 2016

In Germany, more people applied for asylum last year than at any time since 2016. According to annual statistics from the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees, almost 218,000 people applied for protection in Germany for the first time. That was almost 47 percent more than in 2021.

The approximately one million war refugees from Ukraine who were admitted to Germany last year did not have to apply for asylum. You receive immediate temporary protection on the basis of an EU directive.

Interior Minister Faeser announces refugee summit in her ministry

Claudia Plass, ARD Berlin, February 5, 2023 at 9:20 p.m