Thursday December 30th 2021
Annual balance sheet of the Federal Police
Around 11,000 illegal entries via Belarus
At the end of the year, the Federal Police took stock: More than 11,000 migrants entered Germany via the Belarus route alone. They are distributed from Brandenburg. Meanwhile, Bavaria decides to stick to its anchor centers concept.
More than 11,000 migrants came to Germany illegally via Belarus and Poland in 2021 – but the trend was clearly downwards towards the end of the year. The federal police registered a total of 11,213 unauthorized entries for the entire year, as they announced. The German-Polish border is the focus. A particularly large number of migrants came to Brandenburg via Poland.
The number of migrants on the Belarus route had risen rapidly since the middle of the year. The EU sees a targeted policy of the Belarusian ruler Alexander Lukashenko behind this. In September there were 2,049 migrants who entered illegally. In October the number peaked at 5294. According to the information, the number of 2849 unauthorized people who entered the country remained at a high level in November. In December 2021, according to the federal police, 521 illegal entries into Germany with a connection to Belarus were found so far.
So many people from Iraq, Syria and other crisis countries had arrived at the central initial reception facility in Eisenhüttenstadt in late summer that heated tents had to be used in addition to the regular accommodation at times. The state had asked the federal government for support so that the refugees can be distributed more quickly to other federal states and the initial reception in Brandenburg is less stressful. A new registration center for migrants in Frankfurt (Oder) has been relieving the authority since November.
Conflict with traffic lights: Bavaria is sticking to anchor centers
In the meantime, the Bavarian government announced that, contrary to the announcements of the traffic light coalition in the federal government, Bavaria wanted to stick to the concept of anchor centers for refugees. “The accommodation of asylum seekers is ultimately the responsibility of the federal states, which is why we want to stick to the continuation,” said Bavaria’s Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann from the CSU. In the coalition agreement between the SPD, the Greens and the FDP in the federal government, it is stated that the concept will not be pursued by the federal government. So far, the Federal Ministry of the Interior has not commented on inquiries about how exactly it should go on for the existing anchor centers and the refugees housed there.
“How the new federal government envisions the accommodation in practice in the future remains unclear,” said Herrmann. “In any case, it is certain that the bundling of authorities – the actual core of the anchor concept – has proven itself from a Bavarian point of view.” One therefore wants to hold on to the continuation. “The name of these institutions is ultimately of secondary importance,” said the CSU politician. The number of refugees in the past weeks and months showed how important functioning reception facilities are.
The anchor centers go back to the “Master Plan Migration” of the then Federal Minister of the Interior Horst Seehofer. They bundle the work of the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees, the Federal Employment Agency, the youth welfare offices, judicial and immigration authorities. This should accelerate the asylum procedure and thus also the deportation of those who are not given the right to stay. Bavaria was a pioneer, in August 2018 seven centers were launched in the Free State. Around 9,000 people currently live in the Bavarian institutions.