An accelerated procedure exists since March 2016. According to Section 30a of the Asylum Act, the accelerated procedure can be carried out in branch offices of the BAMF which are assigned to a ‘special reception centre’ (besondere Aufnahmeeinrichtung). Only in these locations can accelerated procedures be carried out for asylum seekers who:[1]
- Applicant with a nationality of a Safe country of origin;
- The authorities have been obviously deceived through false statements or documents, or by concealing important information, or by withholding documents regarding their identity or nationality.
- Have wilfully destroyed or disposed of an identity or travel document that would have helped establish their identities or nationalities, or if the circumstances clearly give reason to believe that this is so;
- Have filed a subsequent application, in case they have left Germany after their initial asylum procedure had been concluded;[2]
- Have made an application merely in order to delay or frustrate the enforcement of an earlier or imminent decision which would result in their removals;
- Refuse to be fingerprinted in line with the Eurodac Regulation; or
- Were expelled due to serious reasons of public security and order of if there are serious reasons to believe that they constitute a serious threat to public security and order.
In the accelerated procedure, the BAMF must decide within 1 week after lodging the asylum application (7 calendar days).[3] If it rejects the asylum application as manifestly unfounded, inadmissible or for other (formal) reasons (discontinued applications in the German system) within this timeframe, the procedure is carried on as an accelerated procedure and the asylum applicants are obliged to stay in the ‘special reception centres’. If the BAMF does not decide within one week, or if the application is rejected as simply ‘unfounded’ or if protection is granted, the applicant can leave the special reception centre and the procedure is carried on as a regular procedure, if necessary.[4] As of April 2024, there is no systematic exemption of vulnerable applicants from the accelerated procedure provided by the law with the exception of unaccompanied minors, who are the only onesby law exempted from the procedure.[5] Thus, all other vulnerable asylum applicants can be subjet to the accelerated procedure.
During an accelerated procedure, asylum seekers are obliged to stay in the special reception centres.[6] These are not closed facilities, as asylum seekers may leave the premises and are free to move around in the local area (usually the district of responsibility of the local immigration authority). In this respect, the same rules apply to them as to asylum seekers in the regular procedure who also face a ‘residence obligation’ in the first months of an asylum procedure (see Freedom of movement). However, asylum seekers in the accelerated procedure face significantly stricter sanctions for non-compliance with the ‘residence obligation’: If they leave the town or district in which the special reception centre is located, it shall be assumed that they have failed to pursue the asylum procedure.[7] This may lead to the termination of their asylum procedure and rejection of their application.
From 1 August 2018 onwards, the ‘special reception centres’ existing in Bamberg and Manching/Ingolstadt were renamed as AnkER centres.[8] The accelerated procedure does not seem to have been applied therein from the start. Asylum statistics show that the procedure under Section 30a Asylum Act is rarely applied.[9] In 2022 and 2023, the accelerated procedure was mainly applied in the AnkER centre in Bamberg (Bavaria) and the arrival centre in Mönchengladbach (North Rhine-Westphalia).[10] In the first half of 2023, it was applied to 313 asylum applications, representing 0.2% of all application lodged in that time.[11] In 2022, it was applied to 374 applications (0.2 % of all asylum applications).[12] In 2020, the accelerated procedure was applied in 566 cases, out of a total of 122,170 asylum applications. In the first quarter of 2021, no accelerated procedures were carried out due to the Covid-19 pandemic. [13] Among the top 10 nationalities of applications treated in the accelerated procedure in the first half of 2023 are the ‘safe countries of origin’ of the Western Balkans, Georgia, Moldova and Senegal, but also, the Russian Federation (13 cases), Syria (6 cases, out of which 5 were subsequent applications)and Afghanistan (4 cases).[14] The average length of the accelerated procedure was 5.7 months in the first half of 2023,[15] and hence only slighty shorter than the duration of all procedures over the whole of 2023 (6.8 months, see Regular procedure). In 2022, the average duration was 2.1 months but differed between BAMF branch offices, between 0.2 months and 3.5 months in.[16] By and large, it can be concluded that the introduction of the accelerated procedure under Section 30a of the Asylum Act has only had little impact on asylum procedures in general.
The rules concerning personal interviews, appeal and legal assistance are similar to those described in the Regular procedure and, for inadmissibility decisions, the Admissibility procedure.
[1] Section 30a(1) Asylum Act.
[2] This qualification (that only asylum seekers who have left Germany after a first asylum procedure are subject to this provision) is not contained in the law. However, a representative of the BAMF stated in a committee hearing in Parliament that the authorities were obliged to make use of this qualification for legal reasons. The Federal Government later explained that the authorities would ‘presumably’ apply the law in this manner: Federal Government, Response to a parliamentary question by Member of Parliament Volker Beck, 18/7842, 8 March 2016, available in German at: https://bit.ly/41rTpTv, 19.
[3] Section 30a(2) Asylum Act.
[4] Section 30a(2)-(3) Asylum Act.
[5] BAMF, Konzept: Die Identifizierung vulnerabler Personen im Asylverfahren, 10 June 2022, available in German at: https://bit.ly/3yBv0QK.
[6] Section 30a(3) Asylum Act.
[7] Section 33(2)(3) Asylum Act.
[8] Markus Kraft, Die ANKER-Einrichtung Oberfranken, Asylmagazin 10-11/2018, available in German at: https://bit.ly/4at6eAU, 351-353.
[9] Information provided by the BAMF, 1 August 2017.
[10] Federal Government, Response to parliamentary question by The Left, 20/8787, 11 October 2023, available in German at: https://bit.ly/48WSr4w, 32, 20/6052, 14 March 2023, available in German at: https://bit.ly/3zrfRPq, 28.
[11] Federal Government, Response to parliamentary question by The Left, 20/8787, 11 October 2023, available in German at: https://bit.ly/48WSr4w, 39.
[12] Federal Government, Response to parliamentary question by The Left, 20/6052, 14 March 2023, available in German at: https://bit.ly/3zrfRPq, 27.
[13] Federal Government, Response to parliamentary question by The Left, 19/30711, 15 June 2021, available in German at: https://bit.ly/3veNm8t, 21 & 30.
[14] Federal Government, Response to parliamentary question by The Left, 20/8787, 11 October 2023, available in German at: https://bit.ly/48WSr4w, 40.
[15] Federal Government, Response to parliamentary question by The Left, 20/8787, 11 October 2023, available in German at: https://bit.ly/48WSr4w, 32.
[16] Federal Government, Response to parliamentary question by The Left, 20/6052, 14 March 2023, available in German at: https://bit.ly/3zrfRPq, 20.