exclusive
The currently high number of asylum seekers is pushing the refugee authority to its limits. Now, of all times, austerity plans are threatening the ability to work.
The Republic’s most important refugee authority, the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF), is apparently threatened with drastic cuts in the important IT area. According to information from WDR and NDR This could result in the dismissal of around 350 external employees.
According to the information, the federal government’s budget plans for the coming year only provided for around 40 million euros for contracts and services in the information technology sector – but more than 120 million euros have been registered by the BAMF. In recent years, spending on IT services is said to have amounted to more than 100 million euros.
The BAMF is said to have made it clear to the higher-level Federal Ministry of the Interior that such savings would “not only jeopardize future viability, but also regular service operations in 2024,” as it says in an internal template. “The consequences would be severe, and sometimes unplannable, effects on the BAMF’s IT performance level.” The “Bild” newspaper first reported on savings plans in general.
Possible approach in IT financing
When asked, the Federal Office did not want to comment because the budget was still being drawn up. A final decision should be made on Friday night in the budget committee’s adjustment meeting. According to information from WDR and NDR A possible convergence in IT financing at the Federal Office has recently become apparent. Details about this are unknown.
The Federal Office is hit by the austerity plans at a time when the number of asylum seekers has been the highest in years. The authority, headquartered in Nuremberg, is central to the management because it is responsible for examining asylum applications. In a letter to Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD), BAMF President Hans-Eckhard Sommer predicted at the beginning of November that “an asylum access of 350,000 or even more can be expected by the end of the year.”
With a view to the planned savings in the IT sector, Sommer wrote that the Federal Office’s “service operations and the fulfillment of its core tasks” were “at risk”. In order to fulfill many of its tasks, the BAMF would have to “go back to paper solutions or Excel lists”.
A research by WDR and NDR had already shown in October that the Federal Office had reached its limits due to the high number of accesses. The ongoing operations of the BAMF were ensured primarily by redeploying staff to the asylum area.
In the wake of the migration crisis in 2015 and 2016, the BAMF massively pushed forward the digitalization of the registration and asylum process. New methods such as reading cell phones or digital dialect analysis were also tried out. They would likely be affected by possible savings. There could also be an impact on the digital assistance system for security reports or the digital security verification process.
Given the BAMF’s high workload, the Interior Ministry and the Federal Office have been exchanging ideas for some time about how asylum procedures can be accelerated. In the summer, the two houses finally agreed on a series of measures. At the end of October, the BAMF Vice President finally announced the start of the streamlined procedures. The email is there WDR and NDR before.
The procedures should therefore become more efficient without jeopardizing the quality or integrity of the procedures themselves – but they also affect security-relevant areas: migrants should be asked about their travel routes less frequently than before. The examination of submitted documents should be limited to the “most meaningful document” and the “oldest document”. There should only be further checks if doubts arise about identity.
BAMF: Security is guaranteed
In a statement, the BAMF defended itself against the accusation of placing less value on security: “The Federal Office sees itself as a security authority and, in close cooperation with the security authorities, continues to guarantee security in the asylum procedure,” explained the BAMF. As an example, the authority pointed out that queries from European systems continue to take place regularly – just no longer if the last query was less than 14 days ago.
The Federal Ministry of the Interior rejected concerns: “The measures taken by the Federal Office in coordination with the Federal Ministry of the Interior to deal with the current asylum situation are well-considered and very specific measures that enable efficiency gains in processing without leading to any loss of security,” explained a speaker.