The switch from state support to basic security by June 1 will result in “increased work” for the lower foreigners authorities, Gentges told the Handelsblatt. “It would be all the more important that the federal police also register refugees from Ukraine.”
Strobl told the Handelsblatt that things had to be considered that went beyond purely humanitarian aid. Especially in such a humanitarian catastrophe, one must also know who is coming into the country, who is staying here and who is traveling on. “That’s why the federal government must get more involved here, make every effort to ensure that the people who arrive are also registered and a security check is carried out.”
The Union parliamentary group is already warning of chaos if the federal government does not ensure “complete registration” of the refugees after entry.
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Because that is the prerequisite for an orderly distribution and a structured admission, said parliamentary group vizin Andrea Lindholz (CSU) of the Handelsblatt. More than five weeks after the outbreak of war, only a quarter of all Ukrainian refugees are recorded in the central register of foreigners. To this day, it is not known exactly who has actually entered the country and where they have stayed. “This chaos endangers women and children and encourages abuse,” said the CSU politician.
Criticism of technical problems with registration
Lindholz demanded that the “exception” for Ukrainian refugees be regulated in a legally correct manner. “The change from the Asylum Seekers Benefits Act to the Social Security Code must not become a blueprint,” she warned. “The central principle of our asylum law, that the individual case is examined, must continue to apply.” Help and control should go hand in hand.
So far, the refugees have received lower benefits under the Asylum Seekers Benefits Act. With the switch to basic security, which was decided last Thursday at a conference of prime ministers, they will have easier access to the labor market. The federal government bears the costs of the basic security, i.e. the monthly standard rates.
In addition, the federal government is paying the federal states and municipalities a flat rate of two billion euros this year: 500 million euros to help the municipalities more with accommodation costs, and 500 million euros as an advance payment to the federal states for the costs that have arisen up to June and are still to come .
In addition, one billion euros flows as a contribution to the integration costs, for example for daycare and school places and health care.
However, in order for the job centers to be able to fulfill their tasks from June, they need the basic data of the refugees. According to Gentges, cities and municipalities are “heavily burdened” by the registration. The reason is also the so-called mass influx directive activated for Ukraine refugees. You can get a temporary protection status and a work permit without going through a lengthy asylum procedure.
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Gentges explained that the state supports the municipalities by registering in the initial reception facilities. “An additional relief by the federal government would be necessary, especially since there are always technical problems with the registration stations provided by the federal government, which makes registration by the state and lower immigration authorities more difficult.”
New distribution system encounters resistance in the countries
In the federal and state resolution of last Thursday, there is talk of accelerating and optimizing registration for those who stayed in Germany. This also includes solving technical IT problems as quickly as possible.
The authorities still lack an overview of how many people from Ukraine are actually here and where they are staying. As of yesterday, Monday, the federal police had identified 331,642 refugees, mostly women, children and the elderly. But everyone assumes much higher numbers. Because people with a Ukrainian passport can enter the country without a visa and stay for 90 days without registering.
The Federal Ministry of the Interior recently asked the federal states to check whether additional registration devices would have to be ordered in order to increase capacities. The so-called spade stations are provided by Bundesdruckerei.
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The abbreviation spade stands for “personnel infrastructure component” at the immigration authorities. The capture devices include a camera, a document verification device and a fingerprint scanner, among others.
The Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) currently supports the registration offices with 170 such registration devices and 260 employees. In order to improve the nationwide distribution of refugees, the federal government is also relying on the BAMF’s newly developed registration and distribution system for refugees from Ukraine called “Free”.
The “specialist application for register management, recording and initial distribution for temporary protection” (“Free”) should be “introduced and optimized everywhere” quickly, the federal and state governments agreed.
It should then be easier for the arrival centres, reception facilities and immigration authorities to record the name, date of birth, nationality and other personal data of everyone who has arrived.
However, “Free” encountered resistance from the countries as early as the test phase. In internal emails from the refugee offices of the countries, from which the “Tagesspiegel” quotes, it is said that the “time required increases significantly”, the system “represents an insurmountable hurdle” and is therefore “not sustainable”.
Countries that have so far had fewer refugees should particularly block themselves, because in future it should also be possible that they – at least in the short term – have to take in more people at once than the Königstein key would allow.
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