Berlin (dpa -AfX) – Anyone who makes an asylum application in Germany is waiting for an average of 8.7 months. This emerges from a response from the Federal Government to a request from left-wing MPs, which is available to the German Press Agency.
Accordingly, the processing of applications by the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) last year did not take as long as since 2017. At that time, 10.7 months passed from the application to the decision. In 2023, the applicants waited an average of 6.8 months for a decision.
Nigerians waited for an average of 20.1 months
According to the federal government, applicants from Togo, Gambia and Nigeria had to be patient for a particularly long time last year. They were waiting for their asylum notice for more than 20 months. However, asylum seekers from the Palestinian areas and the Sudan civil war country only received a – mostly positive – decision after around 15 months.
On the other hand, it went very quickly when someone from Kosovo or Moldau spoke. Both countries are considered so -called safe countries of origin. On average, it only took a month for the decision.
Almost all people from Sudan received protection
For the 960 completed asylum procedure of Sudanesen last year, the federal government states a protection rate of 99 percent. In almost 82 percent of cases, protection was awarded in the 433 -decided procedures that concerned people from the Palestinian areas.
In the duration of the procedure of Palestinian applicants, however, it must be taken into account that people from the Gaza Strip have not decided on applications from people from the Gaza Strip because of the volatile situation in the area, which has been strongly destroyed by the war since January 9, 2024.
Several European countries, including Germany, had suspended decisions on the asylum procedure of people from Syria on December 8th after the fall of ruler Bashar al-Assad. Last year Syria was the main country of origin of asylum seekers in Germany with around 33 percent of all initial applications.
Focus on old cases
The Federal Government explains the overall longer procedural period by the fact that the BAMF is currently increasingly focusing on the “residue reduction of pending procedures with a high laying season”. In fact, the number of asylum seekers had risen sharply in 2023. With around 329,000 initial yields, it was around 51 percent higher than 2022. In the past year, there was a decline of around 30 percent to around 230,000 asylum applications.
Cancellation proceedings last particularly long
So-called cancellation procedures are not taken into account in the BAMF statistics on the duration of the asylum procedure. They often take particularly long and are, for example, when the situation in the country of origin has changed fundamentally. In addition, there are withdrawal procedures, which, however, only occur if there are indications that someone was wrongly granted protection, for example in the event of incorrect information on identity.
“Politicians have to find a solution to avoid elaborate cancellation proceedings in recognized Syrian refugees as far as possible,” says Clara Bünger, domestic politician of the left. After all, the BAMF is already overwhelmed. “Hundreds of thousands of cancellation tests would be a huge burden for the refugees” and hardly managed for the authority.
Last year, the Federal Office made decisions in 52,613 test procedures. A revocation or a withdrawal of protection status occurred in around four percent of the cases. According to the federal government, the average processing time for cancellation proceedings was 30.3 months last year.
Procedure in court a little shorter
The duration of the asylum preliminary procedure that is pending when an asylum seeker legally defended himself against a BAMF notice had recently declined. On November 6, 2023, the prime ministerial conference decided to accelerate the asylum procedure that were the responsibility of the federal government, as well as the asylum priority procedure to be responsible. Specifically, it was said that asylum procedures and lawsuit for people from countries with a recognition rate of less than five percent should be completed within three months.
In all other cases, the official and first instance asylum procedures should be ended after six months. With the exception of Rhineland-Palatinate, this goal was not achieved by all federal states. Baden-Württemberg was still relatively good at 7.9 months ./abc/dp/jha