Alarmed by the AfD’s success in recent elections, the federal government wants to improve its asylum policy. Apart from providing easier employment opportunities for asylum seekers, the main focus is to speed up deportations. On Wednesday, coalition leaders agreed on ten measures to make it easier to return to their countries of origin. Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser (SPD) presented the corresponding draft law.

This paper envisions far-reaching changes. The aim is to significantly extend the time during which asylum seekers required to leave the country can be detained in so-called exit detention, for example in airport transit areas. The maximum duration of stay here is currently ten days; it should be extended to 28 days. The ministry argued that this would give authorities more time to prepare for deportation. Criminals, smugglers and members of criminal organizations should also be able to be deported more easily. “Anyone who does not have the right to remain in Germany must leave our country again,” Faeser said. There is a “need for significant change” to the regulations.

Anyone who has been sentenced to prison for at least one year should be able to be deported more easily in the future because of the seriousness of the “needs for deportation.” For members of criminal organizations, deportation can be carried out if there are sufficient facts to prove membership. Previously, individual criminal court decisions were a prerequisite.

Authorities should also be given more authority to determine the identity of refugees. This will allow the search for data carriers and documents in the apartment to clarify them beyond doubt. Search options in shared accommodation will also be expanded. According to the draft, future violations of the entry ban and stay ban would be grounds for detention pending deportation.

Asylum seekers should be allowed to work more quickly

Requirements requiring asylum seekers to be notified of planned deportation were also tightened. Because two out of three deportations fail. To prevent rejected asylum seekers from trying to avoid or resist deportation, the federal government plans to eliminate the three-month notification requirement if rejected asylum seekers have been tolerated in Germany for more than a year. An exception applies to families with children under the age of twelve.

Apart from plans to tighten return rules, there are also plans to make things easier. Strict work bans on asylum seekers will be relaxed. Until now, they have not been allowed to work at all for three months after their arrival in Germany. After this period, only those who are not required to reside in the initial reception center are allowed to start work. Asylum seekers are only allowed to work in initial reception centers after nine months. The federal government now wants to shorten this waiting period to six months. There should also be leniency for people undergoing training and living in Germany with tolerance permits.

However, for some groups, strict work restrictions must remain in place. Anyone from a safe country of origin who is likely to be deported should not be allowed to work. According to Faeser’s plan, this would also apply to people who deliberately hide their identity or whose asylum applications have been legally rejected.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) expressed hope that 300,000 migrants “or more” could come to Germany this year. “This is more than can be easily managed,” he said Wednesday evening at a conference of the SPD parliamentary group. He invited CDU leader Friedrich Merz, along with North Rhine-Westphalia Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst (CDU) and his counterparts from Hesse and Lower Saxony, Boris Rhein (CDU) and Stephan Weil (SPD), to the Chancellery on Friday evening. It would be better if we worked together on this issue, stressed Scholz: I think this is an issue where the country must show that everything is under control.

At the meeting, Merz will likely repeat his call for a German pact on migration issues. Scholz has so far shown no interest in a pact in this area and, most importantly, called for solidarity with the opposition and the state in terms of reducing bureaucracy and accelerating planning. Expectations for a meeting on Friday evening also weakened on both the federal and state sides. The union-led federal states criticized Scholz for not coming to the Prime Minister’s meeting in Frankfurt this Thursday.

At the Prime Ministers’ Conference, countries led by the European Union wanted to advocate for a tougher approach to asylum policy. Proposals to increase repatriations should be introduced into the legislative process “as quickly as possible,” according to a draft submitted to SZ. There have also been calls for Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Armenia and India to be classified as safe countries of origin. “Our community is at the limit of its capabilities – and so is our society,” Wüst said.