Germany considers asylum crackdown

Germany considers asylum crackdown

By JANOSCH DELCKER 9/18/15, 6:29 PM CET Updated 9/19/15, 7:15 AM CET http://www.politico.eu/article/germany-tightens-asylum-law-refugee-dublin-regulation/

BERLIN — Germany has plans to tighten its asylum law, according to a draft law from the interior ministry.

The bill proposes a reduction of benefits for so-called “Dublin refugees,” or “Dublin transfers.” A copy of the bill, whose authenticity was confirmed to POLITICO by the ministry, was published by the refugee advocacy group Pro Asyl.

The Dublin regulation determines that, in general, asylum seekers are required to register and leave their fingerprints in the country where they first entered the European Union. That same country is responsible to process their application. If a refugee moves to a different EU country, they can be sent back to where they first entered the EU.

The bill cuts benefits for these “Dublin transfers” sharply. If passed, these refugees would only receive a train ticket to the country where they entered the EU, and some provisions for their way.

They would have no more right to an accommodation or medical treatment. This is supposed to minimize incentives for “Dublin transfers” to illegally come to Germany.

“The idea is to starve out refugees,” Pro Asyl said in a statement.

The bill, the ministry wrote in the draft, would be a reaction to “a volume of asylum applicants that is unprecedented in the Federal Republic of Germany.”

According to Süddeutsche Zeitung, the bill would include the most drastic reduction of refugee benefits in the history of Germany.

“This bill starves out the so-called Dublin refugees,” the center-left paper wrote, “it mocks the many people who recently helped refugees at train stations; it ridicules the first article of the German Basic Law that guarantees the inviolability of human dignity.”

Authors:

Janosch Delcker