Pressure to allow asylum processing in third countries mounts on Germany’s Scholz

5 months ago 17

German states have called on the federal government to allow the outsourcing of asylum procedures to third states, with Chancellor Olaf Scholz promising at a summit on Thursday (20 June) to keep exploring options.

The discussion surrounding the processing of asylum procedures in third countries has intensified in recent months following a surge of migration numbers and a consequent rise in popularity of the far right.

Before the meeting, the federal states had called for “concrete models” to outsource asylum processing in a joint resolution, increasing the pressure on the government to take action.

However, Scholz seems hesitant to take the next steps. Late Thursday, after a meeting with the state premiers in Berlin, he doubled down and “firmly agreed to continue the process” of exploring options.

The federal government plans to present a proposal at the next federal-state meeting, which will take place in December.

Exploring other models

The government had commissioned an expert opinion on the feasibility of a plan that could be based on different models, such as the UK’s Rwanda plan or Italy’s agreement on asylum procedures in Albania.

However, the experts were highly sceptical of the approach and warned of legal challenges and potential fragmentation of the European asylum system if the government were to embrace the plan.

While experts did “not fundamentally” rule out outsourcing migration procedures from a legal perspective, “many experts were sceptical or even critical of the legal and actual implementation options,” the report states, according to a leak obtained by the broadcaster ARD.

Concerns were expressed, particularly about the demanding requirements of EU law and Germany’s geographical situation, which could make implementing the outsourcing models pursued by Britain and Italy challenging in Germany.

Since the controversial Rwanda model seems to be off the table due to the outcome of the expert consultation, Scholz did not want to comment on what form a German approach to outsourcing asylum procedures could look like.

“I think it’s too early,” Scholz said.

Germany’s interior minister, Nancy Faeser, who had been in charge of the review, had already lowered expectations regarding the government’s next steps ahead of the summit with the federal states.

Outsourcing asylum screenings could be a “small building block” but would not fundamentally change the migration situation in Germany, Faeser said on the sidelines of a meeting with Germany’s regional interior ministers in Potsdam.

It is not a “game changer”, emphasised Faeser.

While she previously said she is ‘very interested’ in Italy’s plans to process migrants in Albania, her conclusion appeared more muted now, and she noted that the British government “has been negotiating [with Rwanda] for 18 months and has yet to come up with a viable model.”

While the CDU-led states were aiming to increase pressure on Scholz, his party colleague Stephan Weil, Lower Saxony’s prime minister, backed his cautious approach, stating that outsourcing would be unlikely to solve the problem.

[Edited by Alice Taylor]