Seehofer's Migration Plan: Frontier Centers for Refugees and Penalties for Non-Participation in Integration Courses

A transit center for migrants should be established at the German-Austrian border. This is insisted by the German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer. In the extensive plan of his ministry, he talks about the accelerated asylum procedure and the return of refugees to the country of first registration. For a boycott of integration courses, Seehofer would introduce sanctions. The Minister, however, stressed that the proposals must still be discussed by the government coalition. Social democracy rejects, for example, transit centers.

"No country in the world can receive unlimited refugees," the German interior minister said at the beginning of his presentation. The main goal is to ensure order and guarantee humanity. He stressed that the protection of the EU's external borders is key and this is an important role for Frontex.

The plan talks about a "new border regime"

Seehofer's plan contains a total of 63 points. The Minister of the Interior insists on the notion of "transit centers", although one of the coalition parties, the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), refuses such arrangements.

The plan also states that a "new border regime" will be established at the German-Austrian border to prevent asylum seekers whose asylum management is responsible to another EU country to enter Germany. "Because of that, we will set up transit centers from which asylum seekers will be returned to their respective countries," Seehofer promises in a document.

From the beginning, Seehofer advocated setting up centers where the asylum procedure would take place at the border, and where their representatives would be competent authorities and courts. However, this idea does not have much support either in individual Länder.

The Christian Democratic Union (CDU) of Chancellor Angela Merkel, Seehofer's Christian-Social Union (CSU) and the SPD last week reached an agreement on a set of measures aimed at tightening migration policy. There is a consensus on the faster return of migrants to the EU country where they first registered. The countries concerned should be returned to the countries concerned preferably within 48 hours. However, there are no special transit centers at the border.

Negotiating agreements with European states will be difficult

The accelerated asylum procedure at the border and the return of migrants to the countries of first registration also implies the conclusion of relevant agreements with these countries. Seehofer wants this month to see what agreements will be concluded with other EU countries. He expects "difficult interviews", but they have a chance to succeed. "The less that Europe can do, the more national measures are taken," the minister said.

For example, Italy is opposed to the re-admission of asylum-seekers refused to the German-Austrian border. North African countries do not want to tolerate reception centers for migrants rescued in the Mediterranean Sea on their territory. This concept, which is also part of the Seehofer plan, has in the meantime accepted the European Union as its own.

According to another minister's point, the protection provided by Germany should be thoroughly reviewed for convicted offenders. If someone has indicated that he is in danger in his country of origin and nevertheless visits the country during the asylum procedure, his application for asylum must expire.

Asylum seekers also have a duty to cooperate more actively in clarifying their identity, according to Seehofer's ideas. Sanctions should also be taken into account for refugees who do not participate properly in integration courses.

In addition, according to the intentions of the German Minister of the Interior, courts should be empowered personally, among other things to speed up asylum procedures. Asylum seekers are expected to participate in court fees in the future.

The first comments of the Seehofer plan point out that the minister presented the document of July 4, so he consciously did not update him on the results of the coalition agreement of 5 July. The Süddeutsche Zeitung daily noted that what Seehofer refers to as a "master plan" is in fact "just a cool list of bureaucratic accountability."

Seehofer was already criticized from the coalition SPD and the opposition for his plan. "The SPD has no interest in experiencing further CSU summer theater," Coalition Deputy Chairman Ralf Stegner told DPA. "Additional talks with the SPD will not be," Stegner assured. Anti-Immigration Chief Alternatives for Germany (APD) Alexander Gauland, on the contrary, saw Seehofer that his plan does not mean "no turn in migration policy."