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Five years after 2015: asylum cases represent every second procedure
| Reading time: 3 minutes
Administrative courts face thousands of asylum proceedings
The German administrative courts continue to work to the limit, warns the president of the Association of German Administrative Judges. Only in a few years will the crisis be resolved in court.
Five years after the state of emergency at the borders, the president of the Federation of Administrative Judges of Germany speaks of a “permanent high burden” on the judiciary. The consequences of the refugee crisis will only be overcome in a few years. There are currently 250,000 pending procedures.
FFive years after 2015, the acute crisis at the German external border and at the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) has been overcome. But the administrative courts continue to work on the edge. The president of the German Federation of Administrative Judges (BDVR), Robert Seegmüller, said in an interview with WELT. “From 2015 to 2017 we experienced massive overload. This has led to a high level of continuous exposure, ”said the Federal Administrative Court judge. “The administrative courts have not yet addressed the consequences of the refugee crisis.”
Robert Seegmüller is judge of the Federal Administrative Court
Source: Martin UK Lengemann / WELT
According to the president of the BDVR, the number of people entering the Federal Republic of Germany has also decreased significantly. “But there can be no doubt that everything is fine,” said Seegmüller. They have stabilized at a “high level”. 2017 was the “absolute highlight”. Depending on the federal state, the administrative courts would have recorded a five to ten-fold increase in the number of incoming asylum seekers in the course of the migration crisis.
According to Seegmüller, a total of 250,000 proceedings are likely still pending in the administrative courts at the end of this year, including all subject areas, both new and pending proceedings. Therefore, the mountain will only slowly dismantle. “Unfortunately, it will take some time until we reach the 2014 level again, despite great efforts by the administrative courts,” says Seegmüller.
In the current year alone, the BDVR expects around 76,000 new asylum procedures. This is roughly double that of before 2015, when almost a million asylum seekers arrived in Germany. Asylum procedures currently account for about half of new cases in administrative courts. Seegmüller estimates that there will be around 80,000 new procedures from other areas in the current year, in addition to urgent complaints or procedures due to asylum applications rejected by the BAMF.
This includes, for example, disputes in police and regulatory law, assembly law or construction law. “However, not only the newly initiated proceedings need to be decided, but also the 2017 and 2018 proceedings that could not be processed until now.” This ultimately results in around 250,000 pending procedures.
In the autumn of 2015, thousands of people came to Germany every day in the hope of obtaining asylum, as here on October 27, 2015 near Wegscheid, Bavaria.
Quelle: alliance of images / dpa
According to Seegmüller, in addition to the actual immigration situation, the situation of the personnel is decisive in dealing with it. Before the crisis, there were around 1,800 judges in the administrative courts, around 1,350 of them in the crowded first instance. About 500 were added between 2016 and 2019, an extraordinary increase.
Seegmüller cautions, however, not to rush to appoint new judges in other areas due to the smaller number of immigrants: “We still urgently need new colleagues to decide the many procedures that have emerged in the crisis.” they remain and there is no “new crisis”, according to Seegmüller, “it will certainly be another three or four years until we reach 2014 status again.”
