BERLIN
Experts criticized Germany on Tuesday for not fairly and swiftly assessing tens of thousands of asylum requests and warned that excessive regulation is undermining successful integration of refugees, prompting anti-immigration sentiments.
“No other European Union country has a larger bureaucratic log-jam in asylum system than Germany. As of February, the number of undecided asylum requests has risen to 243,820,” German think tank Bertelsmann Foundation said in its study released on Tuesday.
The average waiting period for asylum seekers in Germany had been 7.1 months last year, according to the study. Asylum seekers from Eritrea had to wait around 10.1 months, Afghans around 16.5 months, and Pakistani citizens an average of 17.6 months.
Ulrich Kober, director of the think-tank’s program on integration and education, said the excessively long waiting periods increase suffering of the asylum seekers and also spark negative feelings towards them among the local population.
“These long waiting periods cause extreme stress for the asylum seekers as they are left in uncertainty without any perspective for the future,” Kober said in the 47-page report on Germany’s asylum system.
During the first three months of their waiting period in Germany, asylum seekers are not allowed to work and earn money. They are obliged to live in asylum centers.
Many of the qualified asylum seekers find it difficult to find a job even after the three-month period, as many employers prefer to recruit immigrants who acquired long-term residence permits.
“Due to all of these, asylum seekers are perceived as a burden by many,” Kober said.
The report criticized the existing system for excluding asylum seekers from taking part in labor market and social life, pushing them into poverty and isolation.
Unfair assessments
The report also voiced concern over the fairness of the assessments of the asylum requests by German authorities in recent years.
In 2013 alone, 13 percent of all decisions on asylum requests had been corrected by courts, the report noted.
At the end of 2013, there were around 39 thousand ongoing trials on asylum decisions of the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees, or BAMF.
Call for change
Professor Dietrich Thraenhardt, who led the study, proposed a set of measures to combat red tape in the asylum system and help asylum seekers to better integrate into working life and society.
Thraenhardt said the authorities should swiftly assess the asylum applications and use the first three months to provide German language course and vocational orientation for the asylum seekers, and after three months actively support them in finding proper jobs in labor market.
He also underlined that the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees should be supported by additional staff, amid growing number of asylum applications to Germany.
Germany received a record of 202,834 asylum applications last year -- an increase of almost 60 percent compared with 2013. Almost 47,000 of the asylum seekers were Syrians.
After Syria, the main countries of origin for asylum seekers were Serbia, Eritrea, Afghanistan, Iraq, Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania, Kosovo and Somalia.
The German government estimates 400 thousand asylum applications in 2015.
The surge in asylum applications has been exploited by far-right and populist parties recent months, which organized weekly rallies against immigration and refugees across Germany.
Far-right extremists carried out 162 attacks against asylum seekers and their houses in 2014, according to police records. There were 58 such attacks in 2013.
According to the human rights organization Pro Asyl, 47 attacks against asylum seekers were recorded in the first four months of the year.
