Asylum in Germany: What has been decided?
Background: According to German asylum law, a country of origin is considered safe if there is no threat of political persecution and human rights are generally respected.
The new law gives the federal government permission for the first time to independently classify countries of origin as "safe." Previously, this required a separate law that had to be approved by both the Bundestag and the Bundesrat. This hurdle has now been removed for certain areas of asylum law.
The central idea behind the classification: if a person comes from a country that is classified as safe, the legislator assumes that there is generally no threat of political persecution there.
Asylum applications from these countries are therefore regularly rejected by the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) as "manifestly unfounded." The procedures are processed more quickly, rejected more often, and rejected applicants can be deported more easily.
Currently, the list of safe countries of origin includes all EU member states as well as Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Ghana, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Moldova, Senegal, and Serbia. The German government has already announced that it will expand the list in the near future to include Algeria, India, Morocco, and Tunisia, among others.
Government must conduct regular checks
The new law also requires the federal government to submit regular status reports. These reports are to assess political, human rights, and security-related developments in all countries that are classified as safe.
In these reports, the federal government must also explain whether the classification of a country is still justified or whether it should be changed or revoked due to new developments.
This should enable parliaments to understand how the federal government justifies its decisions. The aim is to create an additional means of control, at least formally.
To which asylum procedures does the new regulation apply—and to which does it not apply?
The new regulation applies exclusively to procedures based on EU law—specifically, international protection under the Qualification Directive. This includes all asylum applications based on:
- Refugee protection under the Geneva Refugee Convention (Section 3 of the Asylum Act) and
- subsidiary protection (Section 4 of the Asylum Act).
However, this does not affect the right to asylum under Article 16a of the Basic Law. Since only a very small proportion of all asylum seekers still receive asylum under Article 16a of the Basic Law, the reform is of great significance for the majority of asylum seekers.
Why should safe countries of origin be determined more quickly?
According to the CDU/CSU and SPD coalition government, the reform is intended to enable Germany to respond more quickly to changes in refugee movements. It will also ease the burden on the authorities, as they will be able to process asylum applications from safe countries of origin more quickly.
On Friday, CDU member of parliament Alexander Throm spoke of a "change in migration policy" and emphasized that the classification sends a clear signal to countries of origin: asylum applications without a justified risk of persecution have little chance of success in Germany.
Important: Despite the new law, the right to an individual case review remains in place. This means that people from safe countries of origin can still be granted asylum in Germany if they can credibly prove that they are personally at risk of persecution or individual danger—for example, due to their religion, political beliefs, or armed conflict in their home country.
Criticism from the opposition and experts
However, the new law has also been met with significant criticism. The Green Party and the Left Party voted unanimously against it last Friday. Clara Bünger (Left Party) warned that the new law could lead to the creation of "second-class asylum procedures." According to Bünger, if a country is considered safe, asylum applications are often only formally reviewed—and, in her view, are therefore no longer assessed on a sufficiently individual basis.
The Green Party also expressed serious concerns. Representative Filiz Polat called the new regulation "unconstitutional" and referred to an expert opinion by constitutional law expert Thorsten Kingreen. It states that the Bundesrat must be involved when determining safe countries of origin. The possibility of now regulating this by statutory order circumvents the legislative process provided for in the Basic Law.
Criticism has also come from civil society organizations. Pro Asyl spoke of "highly problematic regulations" and also criticized the fact that the federal government would in future be able to determine countries of origin without a regular legislative process.
Impact on asylum seekers in Germany
For people from countries that will be classified as safe in the future, the situation will change significantly. Although their asylum applications will still have to be examined on a case-by-case basis, in practice they will be rejected much more often. This will also make deportations easier.
At the same time, there is an important change for those affected who are in detention pending deportation: in future, they will no longer be entitled to a state-appointed defense attorney.
Essentially, the new law means the following for asylum seekers from safe countries of origin:
- faster asylum procedures,
- more frequent classifications as "manifestly unfounded,"
- simplified deportations,
- A lawsuit has no suspensive effect; deportation can take place despite the lawsuit, unless those affected file an urgent application.
- No longer entitled to a court-appointed lawyer while in detention pending deportation.
Conclusion: What happens next?
With the new law, the Bundestag has taken another step toward a stricter migration and asylum policy. Although the law has already been passed, it will only come into force after it has been published in the Federal Law Gazette —a process that, based on experience, can take several weeks.
The German government has announced that it will soon make use of its new powers and classify additional countries as safe countries of origin, including India, Algeria, and Tunisia. However, it is not yet clear when exactly the first statutory order will be presented.
One thing is certain: with the new procedure, significantly more countries could soon be classified as safe—and thus more asylum procedures could be expedited or rejected more quickly.
