Those who have been refused refugee status widely exploit loopholes in German legislation
As reported by "Russkaya Germaniya", according to the Federal Police (Bundespolizei), in the first quarter of 2018, the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) issued 5,548 decisions rejecting asylum applications in Germany. However, in 4,752 cases these decisions were not enforced because the persons subject to deportation could not be found by the date of their removal.
This is not surprising: since the summer of 2015, i.e., the beginning of the migration crisis, and to this day, all asylum seekers have been living in reception camps and hostels whose internal regulations do not provide for any restrictions on their freedom of movement. Moreover, movement in the broadest sense of the word: not only within the locality where the camp or hostel is located, but also, as practice shows, throughout the entire territory of the European Union.
And those who have been refused refugee status widely exploit this obvious loophole in the legislation. Having received notification of impending deportation, they, without waiting to be escorted to the plane for delivery to their country of origin, "make a run for it" in a direction known only to them.
But the situation is changing. According to the coalition agreement of February 7, 2018, concluded between the parties forming the current German government, CDU/CSU and SPD, in the very near future, asylum seekers will be placed in special centers until the entire asylum procedure is completed, and leaving the territory of these centers will be restricted for them. The German abbreviation for these centers is AnKER, which stands for Ankunft, Entscheidung, kommunale Verteilung bzw. Rückführung (i.e., arrival, decision, municipal distribution for subsequent residence in Germany or deportation).
It is planned that there will be about four dozen such centers, called "anchor centers" (Ankerzentrum, from German Anker – anchor), throughout Germany. They will not only be a place of temporary residence for asylum seekers. On the premises of the centers, branches of all interested services will operate – BAMF, the Employment Agency, youth welfare services, judicial authorities, etc. The pilot project, in which only Saxony and Bavaria have so far agreed to participate, is to start no later than autumn of this year.
Opponents of the creation of "anchor" centers have already spoken out, including leaders of the human rights organization Pro Asyl, representatives of the Catholic Caritas, the Evangelical Diakonie, and others. Their arguments boil down to the fact that isolating asylum seekers in such centers will not promote their integration, and for children and adolescents, who in 2017 accounted for 45% of the total number of accepted refugees, "living behind barbed wire is generally an unsuitable place."
Oddly enough, Jörg Radek, chairman of the Police Union (GdP), whose members also include Federal Police officers, also spoke out against the creation of such centers. In his opinion, "in these camps, people seeking asylum will be forced to live for months in uncomfortable conditions and in isolation from the local population. This will inevitably provoke aggression in them." As if anticipating the course of events, Radek also stated that "the Federal Police should not be involved in working with 'anchor' centers, since housing asylum seekers in them is not a federal matter."
Unlike Radek, the chairman of the Association of German Administrative Judges (BDVR), Robert Seegmüller, welcomes the creation of "anchor" centers: "This will provide a real opportunity to more consistently apply immigration and asylum legislation and carry out deportations. Authorities and courts will have more opportunities to identify asylum seekers, study them better, and conduct judicial procedures more effectively. And it should be borne in mind that direct deportation from an 'anchor' center is possible."