Chancellor Scholz and Minister Faeser celebrate asylum successes and plan new measures. Merkel’s long-standing “We can do it!” culture seems to have been forgotten.
Berlin – In the traffic light government, one asylum and migration policy follows the next. While Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) wants to maintain border controls at the German border for as long as possible, Scholz and Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) are already planning the next steps. From deportations to the externalization of asylum procedures to a new classification for safe countries of origin, the ideas are diverse.
In the RTLOn the show “At the Table with Olaf Scholz,” Scholz boasted about the introduction of stricter border controls. According to his own statements, Scholz is currently on the phone with the heads of government EU-Neighboring states in order to be able to carry out the controls for as long as possible. “And that will be a very long time,” said the Chancellor. The long-standing “We can do it!” culture from the days of former Chancellor Angela Merkel seems to have disappeared.
Schengen agreement could thwart Scholz’s plan – Chancellor also wants to take action against criminals
And Scholz would probably also be more likely to meet with approval in neighboring countries such as the Netherlands or Poland, as there were also moves for tougher border controls there. The Schengen border code would probably throw a spanner in the works for the Chancellor with this plan. Article 29 stipulates that in the case of “exceptional circumstances”, border controls may last for a maximum of 24 months, renewable three times for six months from the initial six months.
The Chancellor also announced in the broadcast that he wanted to deal more harshly with immigrant criminals. Without giving details, Scholz spoke of further deportation flights of criminals to Afghanistan as a strategy. Courts should also place criminals in preventative detention more often. “There is a way we can do this. And I hope that the courts will examine this possibility more often than they do today.”
Faeser wants to implement asylum reform faster – FDP migration paper and security package as further measures
The current measures are not yet enough for Faeser either. She asked the EU Commission for permission to bring forward the planned tightening of the Common European Asylum System (CEAS). The deadline for the EU asylum reform is actually July 2026. If the recognition rate for countries of origin is less than 20 percent across Europe, the asylum claim should then be examined at the EU’s external border. In a conversation with the FDP parliamentary group, the SPD member said, according to the FAZthat asylum seekers from Turkey would then also be included. In 2024, that was 9.6 percent of all people who applied for asylum by September.
The FDP federal parliamentary group also presented a nine-point migration paper at the weekend, which, among other things, is intended to examine which states could still be considered safe countries of origin. For example, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, as well as Colombia and Armenia are in view. Asylum applications can be rejected more quickly in safe countries of origin. Faeser and the FDP parliamentary group leader Christian Dürr also referred to the so-called security package of the traffic light parties, which provides for changes to the weapons law and social benefits.
Faeser is pleased about the decline in asylum applications – the impact of border controls is still unclear
Looking at the figures from the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (Bamf), Faeser emphasized the alleged success of changes in migration policy that have already been decided. “We have a fifth fewer asylum applications than last year and a fifth more returns,” said the SPD member. According to that Bamf report From January to September 2024, 179,212 people in Germany submitted initial asylum applications, plus 15,883 subsequent applications. The Effect of stricter border controlswhich were introduced in mid-September, has so far only been reflected to a limited extent, if at all, in the figures.
According to the figures, most applicants came from Syria, with almost 61,000 applications. Around 29,500 applications were submitted by people from Afghanistan. In third place are refugees from Turkey with a total of 24,462 applications. Around nine percent of initial applications were made for children under one year old born in Germany. (lismah)
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