Germany Agrees on New Measures to Deal With Increase in Number of Refugees

At a meeting that was held on Wednesday, the federal government led by Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that it has decided to increase the overall amount paid to the governments of the 16 states to deal with refugees by €1 billion for 2023, AtoZSerwisPlus.com reports.

In addition to that, the government and the states also agreed to modernise the IT systems in order to accelerate the processing of asylum applications, which currently takes around 26 months on average.

According to Deutsche Welle, by modernising its IT systems, Germany will be able to provide a faster pathway to asylum for successful applicants and, at the same time, will be able to deport those with unsuccessful bids more quickly.

The government and the states further agreed to extend the maximum detention period for migrants from ten to 28 days to make it easier to order as well as maintain their decision before a possible expulsion.

They also said that the government aims to reach agreements with the countries of origin of refugees and stressed that controlling and limiting irregular migration is a priority for Germany.

In addition to the above-mentioned, Scholz said that the government wants to strike deals with third countries that would open up pathways for qualified workers to migrate to Germany in exchange for deporting irregular migrants whose asylum applications have been declined.

The decision of the German government to introduce new rules follows the high number of asylum applications that the country has been registering so far this year.

Data provided by the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees show that in April 2023 alone, Germany received a total of 19,629 first-time asylum applications.

As for the period from January to April of this year, it has been revealed that a total of 110,516 people applied for asylum in Germany. Compared to the same four-month period last year, such a number represents a 78.4 per cent increase.

The Federal Office for Migration and Refugees has disclosed that Syrian nationals filed the highest number of asylum applications in Germany in the period from January to April 2023.

Nationals of Afghanistan, Türkiye, Iran, Iraq, Georgia, Russia, Eritrea, Somalia, and Venezuela followed Syrians.

Taking into account the high number of refugee arrivals, Brandenburg and Saxony just recently required that the government reinstates internal border control with Poland and the Czech Republic.

Through an official letter to Interior Minister Nancy Faeser, the authorities of the two states said that measures aimed at controlling the border and preventing irregular migration need to be taken as soon as possible.