Federal Minister of the Interior of Germany Thomas de Maizière
According to the Christian Democrat, this proves that the federal government and the European Union have taken serious and effective measures to "regulate the situation with migrants." As the minister noted, the reduction in the number of refugees was primarily facilitated by the agreement between the EU and Turkey to limit migration, as well as the closure of the "Balkan route."
At the same time, as "Russkaya Germaniya" writes, in 2016 the number of asylum applications filed in Germany rose sharply: 745,545, which is 268,869 more than the previous year. This is due to the fact that a significant number of refugees were able to file such an application only months after their actual arrival in Germany.
"The mountain of unprocessed applications is gradually decreasing," de Maizière noted. At the same time, he admitted that as of September 2016, officials of the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) had not been able to process and make decisions on 430,000 asylum applications; at the beginning of 2016, their number was 580,000. The absolute majority of refugees intending to obtain the right to protection in Germany are currently, according to the Interior Ministry, citizens of Syria. They are followed by refugees from Afghanistan, Iraq, Albania, and Eritrea.
Thomas de Maizière noted the "successful and effective" work of BAMF officials, which was improved largely thanks to the head of the agency, Frank-Jürgen Weise, who is leaving his post in early January. Indeed, it was under Mr. Weise that all documentation at BAMF was digitized, which now makes it possible to prevent re-registration of refugees. Asylum seekers are now required to have their fingerprints taken, which was not yet the case in 2015. New centers for receiving and accommodating migrants have been created, where BAMF employees accept applications for asylum. According to the agency's data, cited by the German Interior Minister, the processing time for such applications today is only two months. Moreover, half of the applications are processed within one or two weeks.
It is expected that the processing of all pending applications will be finally completed within the next two to three months. However, this task will no longer be solved by Frank-Jürgen Weise, but by the new head of BAMF, Jutta Cordt, who has been deputy head of the agency since last fall. The 53-year-old woman, who has a legal education and is a management specialist, has worked almost her entire life in the structures of the Federal Employment Agency, which was previously headed by Mr. Weise. It is Jutta Cordt who, in the election year in Germany, will largely be responsible for resolving issues related to the country's migration policy. Weise himself will henceforth become the federal government's commissioner for refugee affairs.