Immigration Laws: August, 1994 - Number #15

On July 1, Germany replaced Greece in the rotating Presidency of the Council of the European Union for six months. The European Commission, the permanent civil service EU body, is the only body that can propose EU-wide asylum and border control policies, which the Council then considers.

The German government plans to use its six months at the helm of the European Union to pressure other member states to share the burden of refugees who have been concentrated in Germany. Over 425,000 refugees have arrived in Germany from the former Yugoslavia, and although the German government does not expect to be able to get other EU nations to share the burden of caring for these refugees, they hope to make arrangements with other EU nations to help with future influxes of refugees.

A draft resolution on immigration cooperation was discussed at the July meeting of the German ministers and a delegation from the EC. The resolution says that all member states should contribute fairly to solve the refugee crisis by receiving asylum seekers, participating in humanitarian and peacekeeping situations, or EU nations can share the burden by helping to finance the cost of protecting asylum seekers in safe areas and neighboring countries. The proposal uses gross national product, population and other factors to determine each member state's overall target contribution.

German Interior Minister Kanther announced that Germany would like to a "more just" distribution of asylum seekers in Europe--three-fourths of the 572,000 asylum seekers in 1992 came to Germany. Britain and other EU members have not supported burden sharing in the past. This less restrictive approach, plus fears of an influx of refugees from Northern Africa, may help build consensus within the EU.

Germany also announced that during the second half of 1994, the EU Council will follow up on a June 20th resolution of the EU Interior and Justice ministers to restrict as much as possible permanent legal immigration, and to permit temporary foreign workers only in exceptional circumstances. The nine EU governments that signed the oft-delayed Schengen open border convention have announced that the last hurdle, the Schengen Information System (SIS), will be operating in five countries by mid-October: the Benelux nations, France and Germany.

Germany on July 1, 1993 revised its asylum law to preserve a constitutional right to asylum but to make it difficult for persons who passed through "safe countries" en route to Germany to apply for asylum, and allowed Germany to put the burden of proof on applicants from "presumably safe countries,". including Romania, Bulgaria, Gambia, Ghana, and Poland. The German Supreme Court is expected to rule on the legality of this "presumably safe country" provision later in 1994. During the first half of 1994, 62,802 aliens applied for asylum in Germany, one-fourth as many as applied in the first half of 1993.

About 10,000 aliens continue to apply for asylum in Germany each month. However, twice as many as before are being returned to their countries of origin after their applications are rejected, currently about 3,000 per month. A few asylum seekers have committed suicide rather than return.

On June 21, the German Bundestag approved an expansion of the number and power of the Border Police. Their number is to increase to 29,000 by 1996, and penalties on illegal aliens smugglers have been raised.

W. Bosswick and H. Lederer, efms, Bamberg; John Carvel, "Bonn Wants EU to Share Refugee Load," The Guardian, July 5, 1994. Wall Street Journal, June 30, 1994, p. A1.