Germany's office responsible for asylum procedures is to receive a significant increase in staffing, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser has told the Welt am Sonntag newspaper.
An additional 1,600 full-time positions at the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees should be filled "as soon as possible," an agency spokesman confirmed to dpa. It currently has around 8,000 positions, according to its own information.
The government is also working hard to speed up and digitalize asylum procedures, at a cost of €300 million ($325,6 million), Faeser said.
Migration is a divisive issue in Germany, fuelling the popularity of far-right parties such as the Alternative for Germany.
Faeser said a government review into the feasibility of conducting asylum procedures in countries outside Europe was ongoing.
"There are experts who believe that such a system is possible, while others say that the legal situation would have to be changed," she said, noting that the key criteria were the human rights enshrined in German and European law.
When asked where she could imagine such procedures taking place, Faeser said: "In countries, for example, that are on the route to Western Europe and comply with the rule of law."
She said it was crucial that asylum applicants were kept safe throughout the procedure and could be returned to their country of origin if they did not qualify for international protection.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Germany's state premiers agreed in November that the government would examine the feasibility of asylum procedures outside of Europe.
The conclusions of the review are not yet available, but could be discussed at the group's upcoming meeting next week.
