Opening of the new asylum facility at BER airport in Schönefeld

Background: The European Asylum and Migration Pact

Federal Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt (CSU), Brandenburg's Interior Minister Redmann, and Brandenburg's Social Minister René Wilke (SPD) attended the opening. Located within sight of the government terminal for state guests at the Willy Brandt Airport of the capital region, the facility is to process asylum applications from people who arrive by plane and file an asylum claim after landing. Review is carried out under an accelerated procedure.

According to those involved, the building is not a new construction, but a bungalow with bunk beds that has already been used for the previous so-called airport procedures. These old procedures were limited to persons without valid identification documents and to people from safe countries of origin. The new rules expand the circle: in future, persons who have provided false information about their identity, as well as people considered a security risk, and members of states in which protection is rarely granted are also affected. Asylum seekers from Afghanistan are not currently part of the group subject to the accelerated border procedure.

Capacities and further locations

Nationwide, Germany must provide 374 places for border procedures under the EU requirements, of which 40 are allocated to the BER site. Further locations are, according to the ministry, available or planned in Frankfurt am Main, Munich, Pforzheim, and Düsseldorf. The ministry stated that Germany had "already implemented national measures in recent months to order and limit irregular migration."

Registration of those arriving is handled by the federal police, while the state of Brandenburg is responsible for accommodation and further procedures. Anyone who ultimately does not receive protection is to be deported directly from the facility. Previous airport procedures had, in the words of René Wilke, "around ten to twelve people per month"; the new structure is set to significantly increase capacity.

Division of tasks and oversight

The German Institute for Human Rights has been commissioned to monitor the border procedures and the upstream screening and to point out possible abuses. This is intended to verify compliance with rule-of-law and human rights standards, without the authorities intervening directly.

Federal Interior Minister Dobrindt described the existing German internal border controls as a "transitional system towards a European external border protection" and emphasised that these are still necessary at present. With the new procedure, he said, one wants "to make clear that we are prepared."

Der Tagesspiegel reported on the opening under the title "Start mit Dobrindt, Wilke und Redmann" (Plus article by Thorsten Metzner). The new facility is considered a central building block in the implementation of EU migration law in the capital region and is to gradually enter regular operation in the coming weeks.