The federal government’s plans for a new EU asylum policy have met with criticism. Human rights activists and Schleswig-Holstein’s Social Affairs Minister Touré criticize that these contradict the basic idea of German asylum law.
There is clear criticism of the federal government’s plans for a new EU asylum procedure: The German Institute for Human Rights rejected considerations of carrying out asylum procedures more at the EU’s external borders. Those seeking protection should not be allowed to enter the country; they could be accommodated in transit centers at the border.
restriction of freedom of movement
The Human Rights Institute explained that in practice this requirement can only be enforced through closed reception centers or significant restrictions on freedom of movement in transit zones or on small islands. Even now, however, European legal requirements for dealing with people seeking protection at the EU’s external borders are often being disregarded.
The institute pointed out that in 2020 the European Court of Justice had considered accommodation in transit zones on the Serbian-Hungarian border as illegal detention of asylum seekers. The Human Rights Institute recommended that the federal government speak out against centers on the EU’s external borders. A system that primarily relies on deterrence and the outsourcing of asylum checks to the external borders or even to supposedly safe third countries outside the EU is not compatible with Germany’s refugee and human rights obligations.
Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser announced yesterday that the traffic light coalition had agreed to promote a common asylum system. This also includes asylum procedures at the EU’s external borders, in which migrants are registered, recorded and identified, said the SPD politician Report from Berlin.
decent accommodation?
Schleswig-Holstein’s Minister of Social Affairs, Aminata Touré, also opposed these plans by the Berlin traffic light coalition. “I can’t imagine how this is supposed to relieve the countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea and at the same time provide decent accommodation in countries that are already overwhelmed. In my opinion, this also contradicts the basic idea of German asylum law,” she told the “Welt” newspaper. .
Woidke: Safer list countries of origin expand
In the meantime, the Prime Minister of Brandenburg, Dietmar Woidke, has also called for the list of safe countries of origin to be expanded. “That should finally happen now,” said the SPD politician to the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung”. “I will propose this again to the coalition partners CDU and B90/Greens,” announced Woidke.
Union politicians in particular had previously called for more countries to be identified as safe countries of origin, such as North African Maghreb countries and Georgia. Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz wants to meet with the heads of government of the federal states for a top-level meeting on refugee policy in the Chancellery on May 10.