German parliament passes bill to speed up asylum process

The lower house of Germany's parliament on Friday passed a bill to speed up asylum procedures, reported dpa.

The governing three coalition parties, the SPD, the Greens and the FDP, voted in favour of the bill. The CDU/CSU, the Left Party and the AfD rejected it. Two MPs abstained, Bundestag President Bärbel Bas stated.

The new regulation will abolish the so-called regular examination by the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (Bamf).

This review has automatically looked after a certain period of time whether there are reasons for revoking or withdrawing recognition of asylum eligibility and granting refugee status. In the future, the examination is to be carried out only "on an ad hoc basis," in part to relieve the Bamf.

In addition, asylum seekers will be able to take advantage of counselling independent of the authorities. Civil society actors are to be entrusted with counselling in the asylum procedure and receive money from the federal government for this.

In the future, the hearing in the asylum procedure may be conducted in exceptional cases by means of video and audio broadcasting.

The asylum appeal procedures at the administrative courts, which according to the federal government currently take an average of 26.6 months, are also to be shortened.

Among other things, a standardisation of jurisdiction is to help shorten the procedure.