Safe countries of origin
FDP politician calls for decision on Georgia and Moldova
“Whether we want it or not – this issue plays a huge role everywhere in the country. We need this relief for the German asylum system,” says FDP domestic politician Konstantin Kuhle about the classification of Georgia and Moldova as safe countries of origin. photo
© Bernd von Jutrczenka/dpa
Are Georgia and Moldova safe countries of origin? According to FDP domestic politician Konstantin Kuhle, the quick answer to this question will result in a “relief of the burden on the German asylum system”.
The FDP is calling for an early Bundestag decision on classifying Georgia and Moldova as safe Countries of origin. A subsequent approval in the Federal Council would make it easier to reject asylum applications from these countries with extremely low recognition rates.
The FDP domestic politician Konstantin Kuhle demanded in the “Münchner Merkur” that the tightening be passed in parliament before the state elections in Bavaria and Hesse on October 8th. “It’s impossible to convey to anyone that such a measure, which almost everyone agrees on, will be discussed back and forth for months and that we won’t come to an agreement. This classification would immediately have a relieving effect.” There are still two weeks of Bundestag sessions until October 8th.
“Unfortunately, it took a very long time for the federal government to decide on the draft,” said Kuhle. “From what we hear, there are still fundamental concerns among individual Greens and an attempt to push this behind the state elections.” He warned of further delays. “Whether we want it or not – this issue plays a huge role everywhere in the country. We need this relief for the German asylum system.”
Safe countries of origin are states in which, as a rule, there is neither persecution nor inhumane or degrading treatment, so that an affected foreigner is unlikely to be at risk of serious harm in his or her home country. This currently applies to the EU member states, the Western Balkan countries, Ghana and Senegal.
The asylum recognition rates in Georgia and Moldova were below 0.1 percent in the first half of the year. At the same time, according to Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD), more than one in ten rejected asylum applications comes from these two countries. Georgia is in sixth place on the list of the most important countries of origin for asylum seekers so far this year, behind Syria, Afghanistan, Turkey, Iran and Iraq.