BERLIN: Germany plans to set up transit zones for asylum seekers on its borders in an effort to speed up the review of asylum applications and expedite the departure of rejected applicants, Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière said on Wednesday.
The move comes as Germany struggles to deal with record numbers of migrants from the Middle East, Afghanistan, Africa and southeastern Europe who are seeking protection from war or persecution, or want a better way of life in Europe’s economic power house.
“The pressure is very big,” said Mr de Maizière on German radio station RBB-Inforadio. “We had 10,000 (migrants arriving daily) over the past days.”
The aim of the zones is to decide on obviously unfounded asylum claims from migrants already at the border, and enable the speedy return of rejected applicants, Mr de Maizière said.
The government has been under pressure to speed up the review of asylum applications as refugee shelters are full and municipalities struggle to house new migrants arriving daily, mainly from Austria.
In September alone around 170,000 migrants arrived in Germany’s southern state of Bavaria despite the reintroduction of border controls on September 13, according to state officials.
Berlin expects 800,000 people to arrive in Germany this year with the intention of applying for asylum — roughly 1 per cent of the population — and several officials have said the number could easily rise to over a million.
At present, Germany has transit zones at airports but not on its borders. Mr de Maizière said plans to set up camps at the border to review asylum applications is in line with European Union law.
A European Commission spokeswoman said, “as such, transit zones are not illegal,” but minimum standards always need to be respected, for instance the provision of food and shelter.
