Faster decisions possible
Amendments in the law on asylum have considerably accelerated procedures
Following the bitter experience during National Socialism, the fundamental right to asylum has been enshrined in the Basic Law (Grundgesetz) of the Federal Republic since 1949. Amendments to the German law on asylum however became necessary when the number of asylum applicants drastically increased at the end of the 1980s.
Whilst there were a good 103,000 foreigners applying for asylum in 1988, the Federal Office had to decide on more than 193,000 asylum applications in 1990. There was hence no question as to the need for a comprehensive reform of the law on foreigners and on asylum. Some amendments were made to the Asylum Procedure Act (Asylverfahrensgesetz – AsylVfG) by 1992 which accelerated asylum proceedings..
One major step was the expansion of the area of responsibility of the Federal Office. Previously it had merely decided when an asylum application was filed whether the foreigner had a right to asylum or not. Now it was given an additional task which had originally been reserved for the immigration authorities: When examining the asylum application, the Federal Office now also had to decide whether the foreigner was to be granted protection against deportation in accordance with sec. 51 subs. 1 of the Foreigners Act (AuslG). This right, which is now referred to as refugee protection, has as its basis under international law the prohibition of “refoulement” contained in the Geneva Convention on Refugees (Art. 33): A refugee may not be expelled or returned to a territory where his/her life or freedom would be threatened on account of his/her race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion.
The fact of concentrating both decisions in the Federal Office, that is on the asylum application and on protection from deportation, considerably accelerated asylum procedures. There were several reforms of the German law on asylum in the ensuing years which brought major changes:
- Act of 26 June 1992 Reforming the Asylum Procedure (Gesetz zur Neuregelung des Asylverfahrens)
- Compromise on asylum of 6 December 1992
- Changes brought about by the Immigration Act (Zuwanderungsgesetz) of 30 July 2004
- Directive Transposition Act (Richtlinienumsetzungsgesetz) of 28 August 2007
