Shortly before the “refugee summit” taking place in Berlin today, Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) spoke out in favor of asylum procedures at the EU’s external borders and thus surprisingly gave up her previous resistance to such controls.
“In the future, decisions about asylum for people who have little prospect of protection in the EU will have to be made at the external borders,” said Faeser. “That means that the registration and registration and identification of the refugees will take place there.” Those who have no right to asylum must “return to their homeland from there”.
Push for asylum procedures at the EU’s external borders: Praise for Faeser
The social democrat also received criticism for her initiative, for example from the aid organization Pro Asyl, which accused Faeser of “breaching a human rights dam”. The majority, however, met with approval. In a Civey survey for FOCUS online a few weeks ago, 88 percent of Germans were in favor of “refugees’ chances of asylum being checked at the EU’s external borders”.
Faeser now seems to want to comply with this wish with its publicly effective announcement. At least she is perceived by many as a resolute, hands-on politician who is resisting the influx of immigrants – since the beginning of the year more than 100,000 people have applied for asylum in Germany for the first time.
Interior expert Alexander Throm (CDU): “Foreign feathers”
Alexander Throm, spokesman for domestic affairs for the CDU/CSU parliamentary group, sees things completely differently – and sharply criticizes the interior minister. “Faeser adorns himself here with foreign feathers. The first EU proposals for such an external border procedure date back to 2016,” says Throm. “The regulations that are at stake now were presented in September 2020 and have been critically discussed since then. None of this had anything to do with Ms. Faeser.”
The CDU politician told FOCUS online: “The fact that Ms. Faeser is once again promoting something as a big hit that, on closer inspection, turns out to be a vain number, we got used to that in the Hessian election campaign. But this time it goes beyond a harmless PR campaign. Faeser’s actions at EU level can have long-term negative consequences for Germany.”
According to Throm, the EU proposals at the time were “already the lowest common denominator” and not primarily geared towards Germany’s interests.
A look at the details: sharp criticism of the Federal Minister of the Interior
“According to the draft of the Asylum Procedures Ordinance of 2020, border procedures should only be applied to asylum seekers who are obviously abusive, pose a threat to security or come from countries whose protection rates are less than 20 percent across the EU.” positive asylum decisions in the total number of asylum decisions. “That would have a direct impact on a country of origin like Kenya, which has a recognition rate of 18 percent in the EU.”
Throm continues: “In principle, not only minors traveling alone should be excluded, but also all families with children up to twelve years of age. All of this already drastically limits the application.”
“Instead of Ms. Faeser at least standing up for this lowest common denominator, she now wants to soften these proposals further,” complains Throm. “Mrs. Faeser wants to turn two crucial screws that have a major impact: the recognition rate and the exception regulations. In doing so, Ms. Faeser is aiming for the external border procedure to become an absolute exception instead of the rule.”
“External border procedures are becoming the exception instead of the rule”
According to Throm, the Federal Minister of the Interior is working towards “that the border procedure only applies to countries of origin with a protection rate of 15 percent and more and not 20 percent. And if the federal government believes that the border procedure is being overused, then the area of application should be gradually narrowed down – down to a protection rate of just five percent.”
The interior expert on FOCUS online: “Everyone must be clear what such a proposal means in practice. Massive implementation problems and conflicting interests of other member states are already more than foreseeable.”
Another point of criticism: “Mrs. Faeser not only wants to exclude families with children, but also families with young people up to the age of 18 from the external border procedure. This no longer has anything to do with the Commission’s original concern to protect the well-being of children. The aim seems to be that the external border procedures only apply to as few people as possible.”
Throm: “Further burdens” are coming to Germany
What is particularly serious, however, is that Ms. Faeser “wants to agree to the expansion of the family concept proposed by the Commission”. This family concept is decisive for the competence within the EU.
Throm: “The new term can be found in the proposal for a regulation on asylum and migration management. According to this, in addition to the core family, i.e. spouse and underage children, siblings – regardless of age – should also establish a responsibility.” Since there is already a very large migrant population in Germany, this “would immediately become the responsibility of our country for further asylum seekers pull”.
Alexander Throm: “Precisely because Germany has accepted a large number of applicants in recent years, this will lead to an additional burden. Solidarity distribution is thus moving further into the distance.”
