A proposal by the Saxon Interior Minister to replace individual asylum rights with annual quotas sparks a political row in Germany

A proposal by the Minister of the Interior of Saxony, Armin Schuster, to replace the individual right to asylum with annual reception quotas, has sparked a political controversy in Germany. While the minister, who belongs to the Christian Democratic Party, presents it as a way to avoid burdening municipalities beyond their capacity, his opponents believe that he links the protection of those persecuted to a political decision regarding the number of people accepted.

The dispute emerged on Friday, September 25, after details of a four-point plan were published. The discussion went beyond tightening asylum procedures to the basis on which protection is granted: is the person’s need for it decisive, or is there a place for him within a reception ceiling determined by the state?

What does Schuster want?

“The capacity of cities and municipalities to receive must be a criterion for the amount of asylum granted by Germany in the future,” Schuster said, according to the Szechsee Zeitung newspaper.

It calls for annual quotas with a flexible ceiling, with continued border controls and the return of people from them. He believes that the decline in the number of asylum seekers proves the success of the extremist policy, and he wants to discuss his plan with the federal government and the states.

But the minister came back to clarify, in statements reported by the German News Agency, that he wanted to keep asylum as a principle and goal of the state in the constitution, while granting it within specific quotas. He stressed that protecting those who are politically persecuted remains a moral and historical commitment for Germany.

This clarification does not eliminate the essence of the dispute: maintaining a general obligation to protect differs from maintaining an individual right that each person can claim. The matter is still a political proposal, and has not been turned into a law that changes the conditions of asylum seekers.

Protection after the quota is completed

The sensitivity of the proposal lies in the fate of the person who deserves protection, but arrives after the number allowed to receive him has been exhausted. In a statement by the parliamentary bloc of the Social Democratic Party, a partner in the ruling coalition in Germany, the spokeswoman for immigration and integration affairs, Rasha Nasr, refused to replace a basic right with a number determined by politics.

“Basic rights apply to people who need their protection,” she said, stressing that this should not stop when the reception quota is full. It considered that Schuster's demand conflicts with the ruling coalition agreement, and there is no parliamentary majority to pass it.

Hence, the impact of the idea goes beyond the organization of housing and services. It raises a dispute about the relationship between a state's capacity to receive and its obligation to examine an individual's need for protection. Also, simply announcing a flexible ceiling does not answer how to deal with those who face the risk of persecution after reaching it.

A plan that includes detention and naturalization

The plan is not limited to asylum quotas. According to the German broadcaster MDR, Schuster proposes introducing detention to force asylum rejects who are obligated to leave to implement it if they do not leave voluntarily, which would require amending the legal rules.

It also calls for amending the European Convention on Human Rights to facilitate the deportation of perpetrators of serious crimes, and to tighten naturalization conditions. His ideas include examining the possibility of facilitating the withdrawal of German citizenship from dual nationals convicted of serious crimes.

The head of the Green Bloc in the Saxon Parliament, Franziska Schubert, believes that this rhetoric serves the extreme right. She also warned against putting refugees and perpetrators of crimes in the same basket, calling for a focus on integration and removing obstacles for those who live and work in the state.

Reservations from within the party itself

Even within the Christian Democratic Party, the proposal did not gain automatic support. The Minister of the Interior of the state of Hesse, Roman Buzek, has reservations about proposing constitutional and European changes that he does not see the possibility of implementing in the near or medium term, according to the German News Agency.

Bozek believes that there is no parliamentary majority on the horizon to amend the constitution, and he prefers to focus on measures that can be implemented practically and legally quickly.

This obstacle has its weight: Article 79 of the Basic Law (German Constitution) requires the approval of two-thirds of the members of the Federal Parliament, and two-thirds of the votes of the Council of States, for the constitutional amendment. Also, changing the German text alone does not automatically negate other grounds of protection that are based on international and European obligations.

How does asylum work in Germany now?

The German government makes clear that protection is not based on a single path. There is the right of asylum for those who are politically persecuted according to Article 16A of the Constitution, there is refugee status based on the Geneva Convention, and there is also subsidiary protection for those who face serious harm, such as torture or threats to their lives. Furthermore, there are also national barriers to deportation, when return would result in a violation of the European Convention on Human Rights or would expose the person to a specific serious risk. Therefore, it is not correct to reduce the entire system to one constitutional article, or to consider the call to amend it as an immediate cancellation of all forms of protection.

European force to deport immigrants

Germany had called for the formation of a rapid intervention force affiliated with the European Border Guard Agency (Frontex), to assist countries in the event of sudden migration “pressure” at the Union’s external borders, similar to what happened in the Spanish enclave of Ceuta this summer.

German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt stated, during a press conference today, Saturday (September 26) in Munich, that Europe must establish “a new support mechanism for countries facing such pressure at their external borders.”

Dobrindt stressed that the German government, led by Chancellor Friedrich Merz, which has made tightening immigration policy a priority to curb the rise of the extreme right, is “convinced that it can make greater use of the Frontex agency in the procedures for returning migrants,” especially through the third countries they pass through, as well as within the framework of the “Dublin Agreement” within the European Union, which determines the country responsible for deciding on the asylum request.

Germany is currently working, in cooperation with Denmark, the Netherlands, Austria and Greece, to establish migrant return centers (deportation centres) in a country outside the European Union, with the aim of returning asylum seekers whose applications have been rejected.

Today, Saturday, European interior ministers held talks aimed at tightening border controls, improving the speed of emergency response, and establishing rapid mechanisms to return some migrants.

The meeting of 17 ministers from the European Union and Britain comes at a time when the 27-nation bloc is working to strengthen immigration controls, following the entry into force of the Migration and Asylum Charter last June.