The leaders of Germany's 16 federal states are jointly calling on the German government to develop concrete potential models for outsourcing asylum procedures to countries outside the European Union.
The state premiers agreed on a migration position paper ahead of their meeting with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Thursday, at which migration and asylum policy were expected to be the dominant topics.
The paper urges Scholz's government to "develop concrete models for the implementation of asylum procedures in transit and third countries and, in particular, to address the necessary changes in EU regulation and national asylum law."
The Social Democrats (SPD) nevertheless expressed scepticism that such a regulation could reduce irregular immigration to any great extent. "I don't believe that this will be a solution to our structural problems," said Lower Saxony's state premier Stephan Weil.
Interior Minister Nancy Faeser, also of the SPD, had previously expressed a similar view. It could be a "building block", but would not fundamentally change the migration situation in Germany.
The conservative CDU/CSU, on the other hand, was satisfied. North Rhine-Westphalia's state premier, Hendrik Wüst (CDU), called on Scholz to see the agreement between the federal states as a mandate to "tackle a third country solution with care, seriousness and determination."
Agreement between Italy and Albania as a guide
The EU has long been pushing for a regulation under which migrants either undergo asylum procedures in transit countries on their way to Europe or are sent to third countries outside the EU after arriving in Germany.
Politicians from the CDU/CSU in particular have been pushing for a third-country deal, modelled on Italy's draft agreement with Albania to house and process asylum-seeking migrants.
Although this cannot be transferred one-to-one to Germany, it could serve as a model for the EU to follow, they said, noting a country would have to be found that is willing to co-operate.
In their resolution, the states are now calling on the federal government to "develop concrete models for the implementation of asylum procedures in transit and third countries and, in particular, to address the necessary changes in EU regulation and national asylum law."
Third-country deals won't be a 'game changer'
Earlier, Faeser dampened expectations for possible deals to process asylum claims outside the EU on Thursday, arguing that it's unlikely any scheme would change the situation Germany faces.
Efforts such as Italy's deal to send some asylum-seeking migrants to Albania would not be a "game changer" for asylum policy and wouldn't make a discernible impact on the number of people seeking asylum, Faeser said.
In Albania, "a maximum limit of 3,000 refugees has been agreed there. That is a very small number," Faeser said while meeting with the state interior ministers.
She also pointed to the United Kingdom, which has been working for 18 months to launch a similar deal to send refugees to Rwanda. Faeser said those efforts still haven't yielded a viable model either.
Instead, Germany needs to rely on recent reforms to the common EU asylum system, GEAS, to handle migrants, she said, citing the possibility of faster asylum procedures at the EU's external borders and a fairer distribution of refugees among EU countries.
"These external border procedures ... will massively relieve the burden on us here," Faeser said.
Michael Stübgen, the interior minister in the eastern state of Brandenburg, also expressed scepticism about third-country schemes. The conservative politician said the UK's costly experience with Rwanda has not been encouraging.
"This is a possible project that will be very complicated, which will also not be easy to arrange legally," said Stübgen. "But I am happy to be convinced that it should be tried."
Scholz to address state leaders
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is separately consulting with the leaders of Germany's 16 states in Berlin on Thursday, where issues of irregular migration are expected to be on the top of the agenda.
Faeser is also expected to present the results of a review by her ministry on possible legal options and models for a third-party asylum arrangement. The question of which country might be prepared to accept asylum seekers from Germany has not yet been addressed.
Some conservative opposition lawmakers from the CDU/CSU bloc have been calling for Scholz's government to strike such a deal, something that human rights and migrant advocacy groups have sharply criticized.
Another major topic of discussion has been possibly resuming deportations of Afghans and Syrians from Germany who have been convicted of serious criminal offences or are suspected of being radical Islamists.
Germany halted deportations to Afghanistan after the Taliban, a radical Islamist group, seized power over the country in August 2021.
But resuming deportations to Afghanistan and war-torn Syria has been a hot-button issue in Germany, particularly in the wake of the slaying of a policeman by a knife-wielding Afghan migrant during an attack in the German city of Mannheim in May.
Scholz came out in favour of resuming deportations to both countries.
Clarity on deportations to Syria, Afghanistan 'soon'
Faeser on Thursday expressed confidence that the country will soon find ways to deport immigrants convicted of serious crimes or deemed Islamist threats to Afghanistan and Syria.
"We are in concrete negotiations on this and are confident that we will be able to achieve this for this group," Faeser told a meeting with the state interior ministers from Germany's 16 federal states just outside Berlin.
There are only a small number of such people, Faeser stressed. She said the German government is examining the extent to which repatriation via neighbouring countries would be possible in the case of Afghan nationals, citing Uzbekistan as a country that had been previously discussed.
However, Faeser did not want to publicly name any countries with which talks are ongoing out of fears of "jeopardizing the concrete negotiations we are currently conducting."
Cash card: No more than €50 per month
With regard to plans to issue payment cards to asylum seekers instead of cash the federal states agreed to limit cash payments to €50 ($53) per month.
The Chairman of the Conference of state premiers, Hesse state premier Boris Rhein said: "We have reached a joint agreement that the (...) cash limit will be set at €50."
This is an important sign that the federal states are in agreement on this issue, he said. The payment card should be launched from the summer, when the tender for the service provider has been finalized.
Lower Saxony's state premier Stephan Weil welcomed the move. The SPD politician said that this might bring the discussion on the subject to a close. 14 out of 16 federal states had agreed on a joint award procedure for the payment card at the end of January.
The switch is partly intended to prevent migrants from transferring welfare benefits back to relatives or friends in their home country, an issue that has been raised by some German politicians.
It should also streamline the distribution of benefits and ease the administrative burden on local government authorities.
