GERMAN PARLIAMENT VOTES LAW ON FURTHER ACCELERATED ASYLUM PROCEDURE
The bill was approved by the totality of the MP's of the governing parties (CDU, CSU and FDP) and almost all Social-Democrats in early June and will come in force by July 1.
In Germany the right of asylum is a constitutional right. Article 16 of the Constitution [Grundgesetz] stipulates: "Political persecutees are granted asylum."
This constitutional guarantee of a subjective right results in a right to legal remedy. Thus, an asylum seeker whose application has been rejected by the refugee authorities can appeal to an independent administrative court.
On a purely formal level these guarantees are maintained, even with the new law, but the right of asylum is further undermined by restrictive procedural measures.
In order to accelerate the asylum procedure, central reception facilities and "collection camps" are to be set up, where the federal refugee administration (Bundesamt zur Anerkennung ausländischer Flüchtlinge) will establish branch services. The right to legal remedy is reduced to one instance of appeal. Simultaneously, the time limits for bringing in an appeal and substantiating a claim (evidence and legal grounds) are drastically reduced. [Various lawyer associations have protested this measure which, they say, makes it materially almost impossible for them to lodge and substantiate an appeal in time].
After the rejection of his request by the refugee administration an asylum seeker will have no more than 2 weeks time for lodging a complaint and the time limit for filing a complaint against the deportation order [which follows a rejection] has been reduced to just one week.
The main objective of the centralized "collection camps" is to facilitate the carrying out of deportation orders.
The various Länder of the Federal Republic are required by the law to set up such camp facilities until March 1, 1993, at the latest.
The law provides for taking the fingerprints of asylum seekers for identification purposes. The Federal Prosecution Department (BKA) is setting up an automatized database for the administration of fingerprints.
Thomas Sperlich
Sources: Süddeutsche Zeitung, 6,7/8.6.92; Neue Zürcher Zeitung 7/8.6.92
Further documentation: "Zum Entwurf eines gesetzes zur Neuregelung des Asylverfahrens", by RA Dr. Reinhard Marx, Informationsbrief Ausländerrecht (Hamburg) 3/92, p.109 and following; "Stellungnahme zur Anhörung im Innenausschuss des deutschen Bundestages am 18.März 1992 zum Entwurf eines Gesetzes zur Neuregelung des Asylverfahrens" (BT-Drucksache 12/2062), by RA Hubert Heinhold, Schellingstr. 52, D-8000 München 40; "Stellungnahme der Fachgruppe Asyl- und Ausländerrecht in der Neuen Richtervereinigung (NRV) zur aktuellen Diskussion einer weiteren Asylrechtsreform.