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Refugees and migration, harsh criticism of Germany

2025-05-21 09:25:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

The Global Refugee Report is a call for the new German government not to act alone at the national level. Instead, Germany should play a pioneering role in Europe.

"German refugee policy is not up to the challenge of global challenges," says Benjamin Etzold directly. The case is the presentation in Berlin of the third Global Refugee Report. The researcher at the Bonn International Center for Conflict Studies (BICC) recalls the German parliamentary election campaign. This was characterized primarily by the issue of refugees and migration.

The debates focused mainly on Germany and were "heated", says the refugee researcher. In his opinion, this will continue under the new German government. However, Etzold criticizes the fact that this is not based on facts and scientific conclusions. The global dimension of flight and displacement is largely ignored.

Border controls as a prevention instrument?

The migration expert is also sharply critical of the tightening of border controls and the return of refugees: They serve as a barrier and their effectiveness is overestimated, says Etzold. His colleague Franck Düvell from the University of Osnabrück supports this view: "If someone turns back, they try again and again until they reach the country."

This applies to both the internal and external borders of the European Union (EU). "When one road is closed, there is another one right next to it. This is sometimes more dangerous, but then it is more frequented," says Düvell, explaining the effect that he and other experts have often analyzed. This, in turn, attracts criminals: people smugglers.

How smuggling gangs make money from people

The refugee researcher alludes to irregular, sometimes illegal and often life-threatening migration: "It could be forged documents, it could be hiding places in trucks, it could be unseaworthy ships," says Düvell, describing methods used by smuggling gangs around the world that have been observed for many years. "This is the undesirable side effect that we see time and time again with these kinds of measures."

In this context, refugee and migration experts are calling on the new German government and the international community to join forces again: "There is an urgent need to revive multilateral refugee policy, even without US involvement," says Benjamin Etzold of the International Center for Conflict Studies in Bonn. "Germany can and should take a pioneering role here in Europe and globally, instead of just following national efforts."

Improving living prospects in the country

More and more people seeking protection are being kept permanently locked up in camps, fed and cared for there, the expert directly criticizes. Due to the lack of prospects in the camps, more and more refugees are leaving, many of them heading towards Germany.

Etzold believes there is only one way to change this situation: "Ultimately, only legal certainty and improved life prospects on the ground can reduce the pressure to continue emigrating and prevent irregular migration to Germany."

Etzold believes that the new German government's announcement that it intends to largely end legal access to Germany through humanitarian admission or family reunification programs is counterproductive. He believes that this could also encourage irregular migration, which we want to combat.

"Then the door to arbitrariness opens"

His colleague, Petra Bendel, from the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, even fears that Germany could be breaking the law with its border rejections. She refers to the individual right to asylum enshrined in the constitution, the Basic Law and European law. "If you give politics priority over this right, it opens the door to arbitrariness."/ DW