Germany, other reliefs for refugees/ The new law also affects Albanians

2023-11-01 22:14:43, Aktualitet CNA

Germany, other reliefs for refugees/ The new law also affects Albanians

Refugee employment fair

According to the new project-amendment approved by the German government on Wednesday from the regulation for changing the status from refugee to migrant worker, rejected asylum seekers who came to Germany until 31.12 will also benefit. 2022. They are given the opportunity to exit the status of rejected asylum seeker and enter the status of migrant worker with duldung. They receive the so-called Beschäftigungsduldung, (which protects them from deportation). In the previous version of the law approved by the German government last year, people who arrived as refugees before August 31, 2018 had access to this change of status.

Steffen Hebestreit, German government spokesman

As announced on Wednesday in Berlin, the spokesman of the German government, Steffen Hebestreit, in order to enable as many refugees as possible to find employment, the time a refugee must have been working to obtain this status has also been reduced: from 18 to 12 months, as well as the number of working hours you must have worked to gain this status: from 36 to 20 hours per week.

But the prerequisite to benefit is the provision of means of livelihood, the absence of links with extremist organizations and no criminal offences. For the latter, the German government approved a regulation for quick deportations last week

Thousands of Albanians with Duldung at the end of last year

The spokesman for the German government, Steffen Hebestreit, said at the regular press conference that this is done to help the German economy, which continues to be in search of labor, but also to relieve the German municipalities that carry the main burden. of asylum seekers, whose number keeps growing

Germany, other reliefs for refugees/ The new law also affects Albanians

According to a response from the German government given in August of this year to the AFD parliamentary group in the Bundestag, by the end of 2022, nearly 248,000 people with this status had been registered in Germany. Over ten percent of them come from the countries of the Western Balkans. where the first place is occupied by refugees from Serbia with over 11,900, followed by Albania with 7,700 and North Macedonia with over 7,000. The number of people from Kosovo and Duldung at the end of last year was nearly 5,000, as he learned DW from Germany's interior ministry.

Other facilities, from which Albanians do not benefit

The German government approved another relief for asylum seekers: reducing the waiting time for a work permit from six (for parents with children) and nine months (for people coming alone) to three, respectively, six months, for people living in centers waiting. But asylum seekers from the countries of the Western Balkans do not benefit from this, as their countries are considered safe third countries.

Official German bodies assume that whoever seeks asylum in Germany from these countries abuses Germany's social systems. In addition to the six countries of the Western Balkans: Albania, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Serbia, Ghana and Senegal are also considered safe countries. In the future, Moldova and Georgia will be added to this list.

Strong penalties for traffickers

Among other things, the government cabinet significantly increased the penalties for smugglers who bring migrants to Germany. It is planned that people who bring refugees to Germany in an organized manner. or who traffic weapons, or endanger the lives of minors are punished with over a year in prison and these offenses are considered crimes.

Germany significantly increases the penalties for smugglers who bring migrants to Germany

This also applies to those who try to bypass police checks by cutting the cord. The police and the public prosecutor's office, which will be responsible for this sector, will also be allowed to intercept their telecommunication devices.

When is it expected to be approved?

The new amendment, just approved by the center-left coalition government of the SPD, Greens and Liberals, is an additional regulation within the migration package approved in June by the German parliament. But asylum policy is the competence of the states, not the federation, so it is not yet known whether these rules will be implemented by all 16 German states. If this amendment will be supported by the opposition states, this is expected to be decided next Monday, in a joint meeting of the German federal government with the prime ministers of the states. Government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit expressed optimism that the federal and state governments will work together on a comprehensive migration package next Monday./ DW