Coordinación

humanitarian admission,

relocation

4.3.1 Background and general context

Germany has been running humanitarian admission programmes (HAP) since 195655_{. The most promi‑}

nent current examples are the three HAP for Syria, which, between 2013 and 2016, allowed 20,000 Syr‑ ians to enter Germany directly from Syria’s neigh‑ bouring countries as well as from Egypt or Libya (see BMI 2013a, BMI 2013b and BMI 2014a). These three programmes have run out by now. Admission in the framework of a HAP is usually temporary, and the foreigners are not expected to stay permanently. Rather, they are permitted to stay as long as the state of crisis, war or threat in their country of origin con‑ tinues. The third‑country nationals are issued with a residence permit pursuant to Section 23 subs. 2 and, where applicable, 3 in conjunction with Section 24 of the Residence Act, which is first granted for three years, may be prolonged and allows its holder to pursue a remunerated activity.

On 9 December 2011, the Conference of Ministers and Senators for the Interior of the Länder advo‑ cated that Germany participates permanently in the admission and resettlement of refugees from third countries in particular need of protection (resettle‑ ment). Resettlement is an internationally recognised policy tool which is used to deal with long‑term ref‑ ugee crises. If refugees are unable to return to their country of origin and cannot be integrated in their country of refuge in the foreseeable future, they are allowed to legally enter other countries which are prepared to admit them and take up permanent res‑ idence in these countries. Refugees are resettled in cooperation with the UNHCR, the IOM, the appro‑ priate national agencies in the initial countries of refuge, and the local German diplomatic mission, all with the financial participation of the EU Commis‑ sion. Resettlement refugees will receive a residence permit pursuant to Section 23 subs. 4 of the Resi‑ dence Act, which entitles them to take up paid em‑ ployment or touch social security benefits. During a pilot phase from 2012 until 2014, 300 refugees were 55 For an overview of the humanitarian admission programmes

since 1956 see Grote/Bitterwolf/Baraulina 2016: 15.

admitted every year. In 2015, the Federal Govern‑ ment and the Länder agreed to increase the national resettlement quota for Germany to 500 persons. These 500 persons were set off against the EU reset‑ tlement programme in 2016/2017. The total number for 2016/2017 was 1,600 (see below, Chapter 4.3.3). In 2016 and 2017, Germany also participated in the EU relocation procedure from Italy and Greece and humanitarian admission programmes for Syrians from Turkey in the framework of the EU‑Turkey agreement (see below).

Moreover, all Länder except for Bavaria had set up private sponsorship programmes to permit Syrians to bring their relatives to Germany pursuant to Sec‑ tion 23 subs. 1 of the Residence Act since 2013. These programmes require the sponsors to declare on be‑ half of every applicant that they will bear all living costs for their relatives and provide evidence of an appropriate income for that purpose. The sponsors will need to shoulder the complete costs; the “new arrivals will not receive social security benefits apart from medical care in case of sickness” (resettlement. de 2018a).

4.3.2 National developments Prolongation of the Länder programmes

Five Länder have extended their private sponsor‑ ship programmes beyond 2017 to the end of 2018. These include Brandenburg (until 30 September 2018), Hamburg (until 30 November 2018), Berlin, Schleswig‑Holstein and Thuringia (until 31 Decem‑ ber 2018; see also resettlement.de 2017a, 2018b). Pri‑ vate sponsorship programmes in the other Länder have run out in the years after their introduction in 2013.

4.3.3 Developments referring to the EU EU resettlement 2016/2017

Germany participated in the resettlement pilot programme of the European Union and commit‑ ted itself to admitting a total of 1,600 refugees in 2016/2017. The annual resettlement contingent of 500 persons was counted towards this total. In 2016, Germany admitted 1,060 Syrian asylum seek‑ ers from Turkey and 155 from Lebanon. In 2017,

55

International protection and asylum

22 additional Syrians were admitted from Lebanon and 363 asylum seekers from Sudan, Syria, Ethio‑ pia, Eritrea, Somalia, Iraq, Iran, Zimbabwe and Chad were admitted from Egypt, which meant that the contingent of 1,600 persons was fully exhausted by the end of 2017 (see resettlement.de 2018b).

EU resettlement programme for 50,000 refugees by end-October 2019

On 27 September 2017, the EU Commission pre‑ sented a new European resettlement programme for at least 50,000 refugees, which are to be admit‑ ted to the member states by October 2019. The EU Commission will provide EUR 500 million for this purpose. While the resettlement of persons in need of protection from Turkey will continue, the focus is to be broadened to people in North Africa and from the Horn of Africa (KOM 2017c). The Commission asked the member states to pledge how many reset‑ tlement refugees they were willing to admit under the new programme. First, Germany did not make a concrete commitment within the period under con‑ sideration by the end of 2017 because the coalition talks had not yet been concluded. 19 other member states pledged a total of almost 40,000 places. In ab‑ solute terms, France (10,200 places), Sweden (8,750) and the United Kingdom (7,800) made the biggest commitments (KOM 2018c: 2). After the formation of a new government in Germany, the Ministry of the Interior pledged to the EU Commission that

Germany will offer 10,200 places under the EU re‑ settlement programme for 2018/2019.

EU relocation and humanitarian admission of Syrians in need of protection from Turkey in the framework of the EU-Turkey Agreement56

In order to achieve a fairer distribution of asylum seekers within Europe and above all to ease the burden on Italy and Greece, which bore the brunt of asylum seekers coming over the Mediterranean and of first admissions, the Justice and Home Af‑ fairs Council (JHA/EU Council) adopted a decision on 14 September 2015 to initially admit 40,000 asy‑ lum seekers from Italy and Greece and to relocate them within 24 months ((EU) 2015/1523)57_{. Germany}

pledged to admit 10,500 of these asylum seekers. The Council adopted another decision on 22 Sep‑ tember 2015 (2nd Relocation Decision) in order to ease the burden on Italy and Greece, which provided for the relocation of 120,000 additional asylum seek‑ ers to other Member States ((EU) 2015/1601).58 _A

distribution key based on four criteria (size of the population, total GDP, average number of asylum applications per one million of inhabitants over the period 2010 ‑ 2014 and the unemployment rate) was used to determine the number of persons to be re‑ located to each Member State (KOM 2015a: 2). The relocation of 120,000 asylum seekers in accordance with the second Council Decision was to be broken down into two stages of 66,000 and 54,000 places. The first stage envisaged Germany taking in a total of 17,036 asylum seekers59 _{from Greece and Italy,}

with a monthly contingent of 500 places being re‑ served from September 2016. The host member state receives a payment of EUR 6,000 from the EU for every person relocated under this scheme. By 31 December 2017, Germany had admitted a total of 10,267 asylum seekers from both countries under the relocation scheme, specifically 4,894 asy‑ lum seekers from Italy and 5,373 from Greece (see Table 2). The scheme ran out in spring 2018, as only 56 This subchapter is based on Grote 2018: 25 et seq.

57 Council Decision 2015/1523 of 14 September 2015 establish‑ ing provisional measures in the area of international protec‑ tion for the benefit of Italy and of Greece.

58 Council Decision 2015/1601 of 22 September 2015 establish‑ ing provisional measures in the area of international protec‑ tion for the benefit of Italy and of Greece.

59 The promised 17,036 relocation places were to be distributed among the two countries as follows: 4,027 asylum seekers from Italy and 13,009 asylum seekers from Greece.

Figure 4: Admissions to Germany in the framework of the EU resettlement programme, by most recent country of residence (2016 - 2017) Source: Resettlement.de 2018b Lebanon 177 Egypt 363 Turkey 1,060

56 International protection and asylum

those asylum seekers who arrived in Greece or Italy before 26 September 2017 could be considered (KOM 2017e). The European Council adopted a de‑ cision ((EU) 2016/1754)60 _{for the second stage of the}

relocation of 54,000 asylum seekers on 29 Septem‑ ber 2016, enabling these places to be made availa‑ ble to Syrians in need of protection from Turkey in‑ stead in the framework of the EU‑Turkey Agreement (1:1 mechanism). Germany initially participated in the 1:1 mechanism within the framework of its in‑ creased resettlement contingent (see above: EU re‑ settlement and Table 3).

On 11 January 2017, the Federal Ministry of the In‑ terior ordered that Syrian refugees from Turkey should be admitted on humanitarian grounds pur‑ suant to Section 23 subs. 2 of the Residence Act. An‑ other 2,997 refugees were admitted on humanitar‑ ian grounds from Turkey via the 1:1 mechanism by the end of 2017 (see Table 4). Apart from the deci‑ sion mentioned above, the Federal Ministry of the Interior stated on 29 December 2017 that up to 60 Council Decision (EU) 2016/1754 of 29 September 2016

amending Decision (EU) 205/1601 establishing provisional measures in the area of international protection for the ben‑ efit of Italy and of Greece.

500 refugees from Turkey should be admitted each month on humanitarian grounds until 31 Decem‑ ber 2018.

4.3.4 International developments

Germany chairs the Annual Tripartite Consultations on Resettlement

On 13 June 2017, Germany took over as the chair of the ‘Annual Tripartite Consultations on Reset‑ tlement’ (ATCR), the most important international conference on resettlement and humanitarian ad‑ mission. Since 1995, representatives of govern‑ ments, NGOs and international organisations meet once a year at the ATCR conference and the pre‑ ceding ‘Working Group on Resettlement’ (WGR) to exchange their experiences. The Ministry of the In‑ terior acts as chair and the German Caritas Associa‑ tion (Deutscher Caritasverband) acts as civil‑society co‑chair for Germany (BMI 2018a). Together with the UNHCR, they were responsible for the topics discussed at the ATCR conference and in the work‑ ing groups during their one‑year chairmanship (Re‑ settlement.de 2017b).

Table 2: Admissions under the relocation procedure (2015 - 2017)

2015 2016 2017 Total

Relocations from Italy 11 444 4,439 4,894

Relocations from Greece 10 634 4,729 5,373

Source: Federal Office for Migration and Refugees; as of 30 December 2017

Table 3: Admissions under the EU resettlement programme (2015 - 2017)

Admission programme 2015 2016 2017 Total

Resettlement from Turkey (in the framework of

the EU-Turkey Agreement) - 1,060 - 1,060

Resettlement from Lebanon - 155 22 177

Resettlement from Egypt - - 363 363

Source: Federal Office for Migration and Refugees; as of 30 December 2017

Table 4: Admissions on humanitarian grounds from Turkey in the framework of the EU-Turkey Agreement (2015 - 2017)

Admission programme 2015 2016 2017 Total

Admissions on humanitarian grounds from Turkey

in the framework of the EU-Turkey Agreement - - 2,997 2,997

57

Unaccompanied minors and other vulnerable groups

Unaccompanied minors and other