Germany tightens rules for citizens of Georgia and Moldova applying for international protection

2023-09-01 07:51:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

Germany tightens rules for citizens of Georgia and Moldova applying for

Citizens of Georgia and Moldova will now have to present stronger and clearer evidence that their country is unsafe when applying for international protection in Germany, as the latter has decided to designate both countries as sure of origin.

The German Ministry of the Interior and Homeland, announcing the news, said that there is no need to fear state prosecution and that the two countries can protect themselves from non-state prosecution. For this reason, Georgia and Moldova have been placed on the list of safe countries of origin, reports SchengenVisaInfo.com.

With Georgia and Moldova classified as safe countries of origin, asylum procedures will be speeded up, meaning authorities will make a decision faster than before as they do not have to consider security issues.

Furthermore, with this classification, citizens of Georgia and Moldova whose asylum application has been rejected will be required to leave the country within a short period of time.

"As a further step towards curbing irregular migration, we will now classify Georgia and Moldova as safe countries of origin. Both countries want to become members of the European Union. In both countries, people are generally not threatened by political persecution," said Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser, commenting on the changes.

Also, Minister Faeser said that the number of people from other countries seeking protection has increased again, stressing that this requires clear measures to control irregular migration.

Following the federal cabinet's decision to designate Georgia and Moldova as safe countries of origin, the federal government's special representative for migration agreements, Joachim Stamp, also commented on the matter.

He said that over 10 percent of rejected asylum requests come from Georgia and, at the same time, he emphasized that the authorities of both countries have expressed their intention to cooperate in overcoming this phenomenon.

"The classification is a very important step to facilitate our municipalities and courts and to significantly speed up the asylum procedures. We can now implement targeted migration agreements with both countries,” Stamp added.

The data shows that Georgian nationals submitted a total of 6,612 asylum applications in Germany from January to July 2023, while Moldovan nationals submitted 1,910 asylum applications.

The majority of asylum applications submitted by nationals of both countries were rejected, with a recognition rate of around 0.15 percent.

According to the current rules that Germany has, asylum seekers from safe countries are obliged to live in reception facilities until they receive a decision on their application. Furthermore, asylum seekers from safe countries are not allowed to work during the process./ CNA