Germany: Numbers of asylum seekers drop
01 January 2007
Following a trend seen in many EU countries that introduced restrictive asylum legislation in the early 1990s, the number of asylum applications has continued to fall. In 2006, the number of applications in Germany decreased by about 30%, with most asylum seekers coming from Iraq. In total, 30,100 people lodged an application for asylum in 2006, in 2005 the number was 42,908. Of the 30,100, 21,029 were first applications and 9,071 follow-up applications, which can be lodged on grounds of new evidence, a change in factual circumstances or a new legal situation. The main countries of origin were Iraq (10.1%) and Turkey (9.3%). Serbia-Montenegro was third with 8.7% (between January and July) and Serbia fourth with 6.4% (between August and December).
The number of successful applications is very low: more than 30,759 were processed of which only 251 were granted asylum under Article 16a of the Basic Law or on the basis of family reunion (0.8%). 1,097 persons (3.6%) were granted protection from deportation according to § 60(1) of the Residency Act and 603 persons (2%) cannot be deported according to § 60 (2, 3, 5, 7) Residency Act. More than 50% of applications (17,781 - 57.8%) were rejected. In 11,027 cases (35.8%), the application was rejected without an individual case examination. According to the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (
Bundesamt für Migration und Flüchtlinge - BAMF) 8,835 applications were still pending at the end of 2006. Conservative interior minister Wolfgang Schäuble (
Christlich Demokratische Union Deutschlands - CDU) predictably judged the reduction a success.
However, the refugee organisation,
Pro Asyl, commented that because of the clamp down at the external borders of the EU, many refugees were no longer given the chance to apply for asylum on EU territory, explaining the reduction in numbers. The refugee organisation, in a study it initiated on the asylum procedures of Eritrean refugees, found that first interviews conducted by the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees, which are central in the decision-making process, have severe shortcomings.
It was found that in numerous cases, the persons conducting the interviews were not the ones making the decision on the claim. Pro Asyl points out that the credibility of a claim cannot be judged on grounds of transcripts alone and that most of the decisions made on the basis of transcribed interviews are negative. In 77 cases, a researcher found that the majority of decisions did not deal with the individual situation of persons but contained only general legal decisions based on country of origin reports. Often, knowledge on the countries of origin appears very limited.
Further, the research found procedural law violations in that decisions would be rejected on grounds of apparent contradictions in the applicants' statements, without these being cross-checked with the applicants again. With sexual violence cases, officers failed to assign them to the special officer for gender-specific discrimination and it was found that their handling lacked appropriate sensitivity. In cases where applicants reported bodily signs of torture, case examiners failed to consult medical advice regarding cause of injuries, thereby ignoring or belittling torture incidents. Finally, many asylum decisions give a one-sided picture and details given in the report of the interview were left out of the decision. Pro Asyl spokesperson Bernd Mesovic said: "Those who allow such inadequate working standards can be accused of not taking basic and human rights too seriously".
The Pro Asyl study can be downloaded in German from: http://www.pro-asyl.de. A summary of the 2006 asylum statistics:
http://www.migration-info.de/migration_und_bevoelkerung/artikel/070102.
htm. The Federal Office for Migration and Refu