Federal-state meeting on refugee policy: Positions remain hardened on division of tasks and costs

Berlin (epd). Before the federal-state meeting, the positions on the division of tasks and costs in refugee policy remain hardened on both sides. On Tuesday, representatives of the federal states underlined their demand for financial support from the federal government, which increases or decreases with the number of refugees. “The proportionate financial participation must be dynamic, because the number of refugees is also dynamic,” said Rhineland-Palatinate Prime Minister Malu Dreyer (SPD) to the newspapers of the Funke media group (Tuesday). The federal government continued to reject the demand for more money. Instead, ideas for tightening refugee policy are coming to the fore, but these are causing criticism even in the traffic light ranks.

Understanding was formulated before the meeting, especially for the municipalities. They are currently “very, very heavily burdened,” said Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD), adding that she hoped “that there would be an agreement in the interests of the municipalities.” The leader of the Greens parliamentary group in the Bundestag, Katharina Dröge, said that the municipalities had done great things. That is why the federal government is “also responsible for returning part of the support”. The two major churches also backed the call for greater support for the municipalities.

But it sounded different from the SPD and FDP faction leaders. It is not at all appropriate to focus solely on financial issues, said SPD parliamentary group leader Rolf Mützenich. The FDP parliamentary group leader, Christian Dürr, said he expected Wednesday’s meeting not to talk about more money, “but about a different policy.” Specifically, he called for accelerated asylum procedures, a more consistent deportation policy and the classification of Georgia and Moldova as safe countries of origin.

In a draft for a draft resolution by the federal government from the weekend, which is available to the Evangelical Press Service (epd), the federal government refers to the efforts to limit migration at EU level, the planned migration agreements and describes plans for tightening detention pending deportation. But this is also met with skepticism in their own coalition. One should not lose sight of humanity, explained Dröge, who called for more efforts in integration policy.

Before the parliamentary group meeting on Tuesday afternoon, Mützenich explained that Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) should be a guest there because they wanted to know what the federal government wanted to agree with the states. It also needs to be remembered that Parliament is a key player in legislation, he said. A tightening of detention pending deportation must be discussed by Parliament.

The plans to tighten asylum policy also provoked protests from non-political actors. A “deportation and isolation actionism” does not solve the problems of the municipalities, but reinforces racist moods, explained Pro Asyl. The refugee commissioner of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD), Christian Stäblein, said it would be completely wrong to blame refugees for the challenges facing the municipalities.

The Parity Welfare Association also warned that “the negotiations between the federal and state governments could be carried out on the backs of people seeking protection who are fleeing”. The German section of Amnesty International even rated calls for upper limits and fences as “verbal gaffes”.