Refugees … a problem too intricate to solve in Europe

Hani Daniel

The refugee crisis has quickly become an intrinsic part of debates in Germany, in particular, and in Europe, in general, because of failure in containing the crisis, despite efforts by European politicians in this regard.

Some German reports revealed that more appeals were approved against asylum requests in the first seven months of last year.

Nonetheless, according to the same reports, the same appeals usually get overturned at appeals courts, even as they are approved by the courts of first instance.

The spokesperson for the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees was quoted by the same reports as saying that 27 percent of appeals against asylum requests were approved by the courts in the first seven months of 2017.

In the previous year, the spokesperson for the office said, only 13 percent of the appeals against asylum requests were approved by the courts of first instance, although they were overturned by the appeals courts later.

She added that 44 percent of the asylum requests were approved by the administrative courts.

Sixty-nine percent of the requests were submitted by Syrians, the spokesperson said.

The public radio and television broadcaster, NDR, revealed, meanwhile, that the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees considered 444,000 asylum requests in the first seven months of 2017.

In the same period, the broadcaster said, 208,000 appeals were filed at the courts against asylum requests.

In 2017, 25 percent of asylum approvals were appealed. In 2016, only 16 percent of these approvals were appealed. The federal office had reportedly spent 19 million Euros in the period between January 1 and November 21, 2017. This is 7.8 million Euros more money, compared to the amount of money the office spent in the corresponding period in the previous year.

The German government expressed fears that it would have to accept more refugees in the future because of new asylum rules the European Union seeks to impose.

The German magazine, Der Spiegel, revealed that the new rules would seek to overhaul the Dublin Regulation.

The overhaul would give refugees the chance to enter the country where they have relatives, not the first country they arrive in.

The Germans believe that the overhaul would make it necessary for them to receive yet larger numbers of refugees.

The German network, Deutsche Ville, said in a report that refugees can easily enter their country of choice only by claiming to have relatives in this country, in the light of suggestions by the European Parliament.

The parliament paved the road for overhauling the Dublin Regulation in November of last year. The overhaul will go into effect, once the parliament approves it.

Ironically speaking, some lawmakers of the Christian Democratic Union of German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, and others from the Social Democratic Party of Germany approved the overhaul, according to Der Spiegel.