Many asylum seekers who arrive in Germany are not previously registered in other European nations, a trend that occurs despite obligations under the new European Asylum System (GEAS). This is according to “Welt am Sonntag,” which cited data from the Federal Police and the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (Bamf).
The data shows a significant number of individuals were apprehended for illegal entry or unauthorized stay during July and August. A total of 15,226 people were detected. Of these, 484 subsequently filed an asylum application with the Federal Police and relevant authorities. However, only 90 of these individuals had a “Eurodac hit” at the time of their apprehension, confirmed a spokesperson for the Federal Police.
A Eurodac hit indicates whether an asylum applicant has been previously recorded in another EU member state. Storing this information in the centralized European database is vital as it dictates which EU country is responsible for processing the claim. If no relevant information exists, the asylum procedure is handled in Germany.
The Federal Office for Migration and Refugees reported to the newspaper that it continues to face a lack of evidence suggesting that another member state should be responsible in many cases. In total, the office logged 9,077 new arrivals into the asylum system during July and August-4,311 in July and 4,766 in August. If there is no indication that another member state should take over, the asylum claim is recorded as a first application. Specifically, 3,242 first applications were recorded in July, and 3,799 in August.
When the Bamf has reasons to believe that another EU state should handle a case, it initiates a process to determine jurisdiction. Once responsibility is confirmed, a transfer decision is issued. Overall, the office made 1,794 such transfer decisions in July and August. In these two months, 238 individuals were actually transferred, with 108 of those transfers occurring in August. The spokesperson noted that the primary destinations for these transfers in August included Croatia (27 transfers), France (18 transfers), and the Netherlands (12 transfers).
