While the number of Syrians offered only subsidiary protection by BAMF has risen sharply since March, the Süddeutsche Zeitung reported that most of the more than 17 000 refugees that have sued German authorities for not receiving full refugee status in 2016, have won their cases.
The Interior Ministry has rejected accusations meanwhile of pressuring BAMF not to offer full protection to Syrian refugees.
Officials told the SZ that many applicants do not fulfill the criteria of facing possible persecution in their own country needed to receive full refugee status under the UN’s refugee convention.
Despite the government hardeneding its stance towards refugees earlier in the year, those who receive a qualified form of asylum known as “subsidiary protection” from the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) have increased.
From January to August, the BAMF have had to face legal action in administrative courts from more than 17 000 asylum seekers, with 6 000 cases passing through the courts in August alone, according to the SZ.
The vast majority, around 15 000, of the plaintiffs have been Syrians, who make up the largest nationality of asylum requests in Germany and mainly due to court action they are afforded more benefits.
Because the administrative courts find the applicants deserving of full protection under the Geneva convention in over 90 percent of cases, their chances of achieving a desired outcome against BAMF has so far looked rosy.
Although those with subsidiary protection may not be deportated, they still face considerable disadvantages in comparison with those who have full refugee status. Most notably, due to a law passed in February, they need to wait two years before their families are allowed to join them.
From 2014 to March 2016, Syrians were offered collective asylum by the BAMF, but since the middle of March, they have to present individual applications and around 60 percent receive only subsidiary protection. In 2014, before collective cases were introduced, around two-thirds of Syrians were granted full refugee protection.
Although most refugees have won their bid for full status, Die Linke MP Ulla Jelpke attacked the BAMF’s watchful stance in allowing refugees into the country, as “an intentional strategy of disenfranchisement and deterrence which sacrifices humanity”.
Germany has seen an increase in terror-related incidents since the floodgates to migrants have opened.
