German govt looking into third-country asylum procedures

The German government is examining whether asylum procedures can be carried out in countries outside the EU, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (Social Demokrats) told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung newspaper, reported dpa.

She said that "migration agreements with third countries based on the rule of law" were planned, adding that the government was looking into "whether the establishment of a protection status is also possible within this framework."

Asylum applications have risen in Germany and across the European Union. In 2022, 881,200 people applied EU-wide, of whom 217,735 filed their request in Germany, according to the EU statistics agency Eurostat.

Many German municipalities feel overburdened by high refugee numbers, with the issue to be discussed at a meeting between the country's 16 states and the federal government on May 10.

"We are shouldering this great humanitarian feat together," Faeser said.