Limiting migration
Klingbeil does not believe in “magical measures”
September 24, 2023, 2:24 a.m
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In the loud migration debate, SPD chairman Klingbeil accuses critics of the traffic light migration policy of populism. He sees one key, above all, in speeding up asylum procedures.
SPD chairman Lars Klingbeil doesn’t believe in supposed patent solutions when it comes to irregular migration. “I refuse to act as if there is a magic measure,” Klingbeil told “Bild am Sonntag”. “That delivers a populist headline, but it doesn’t mean that even one less person comes to Germany.”
Germany urgently needs the immigration of skilled workers, and for them, “we have to work on our welcoming culture,” emphasized Klingbeil. The asylum process would have to be accelerated so that refugees would have clarity within a few weeks as to whether they could stay and work here – or have to leave again. A work permit must be issued quickly for those with the right to remain. “This is all taking too long for me. The workplace is an important place for integration and learning the German language,” said the SPD leader.
Rejected applicants would also have to leave the country quickly. To this end, more migration agreements should be negotiated with countries of origin, and Klingbeil also believes that better combating of smugglers is necessary. Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser’s idea of tighter control of the borders with the Czech Republic and Poland was also “exactly right”.
Greens also see a need for action
CDU leader Friedrich Merz had previously called on Chancellor Olaf Scholz to work with the Union to find a solution to the issue of migration. “I offer you: Let’s do this together, and if you can’t do it with the Greens, then throw them out, then we’ll do it with you – but we have to solve this problem,” he said at the CSU party conference in Munich.
The Deputy Prime Minister of Hesse, Tarek Al-Wazir, who, like Faeser and Söder, is currently in the hot phase of the state election campaign, spoke of difficult but also unavoidable decisions. Anyone who does not have the right to stay at the end of a procedure will have to leave the country again, the Green Party’s top candidate told the Germany editorial network. “We have to enforce that too if we want to protect the right to asylum.”
There have recently been increasing warnings of overload from states and municipalities. By the end of August, the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees registered more than 204,000 initial applications for asylum – an increase of 77 percent compared to the same period last year. In addition, because of the Russian war, more than a million people from Ukraine sought protection in Germany without having to apply for asylum.