What is Germany going to do with its refugees in the future? The CSU party, a partner in the governing coalition, wants to take a tougher position and send everyone arriving in Germany without documentation to new centers. “I want them to start operating in August or September,” the German interior minister and CSU leader Horst Seehofer, told a party meeting on law and order. Following talks, Seehofer said he felt there was support from the states for his planned “ Anker centers”.

What are the Anker centers?

“Anker” stands for “Ankunft” (arrival), “Entscheidung” (assessment), and “Rückführung” (return). The first job of the centers will be to determine the identity of an asylum-seeker. This includes a determination on the age of young arrivals. Then, still within the centers, asylum authorities and lawyers will decide the protection status of each individual. Those whose applications for asylum are rejected will be swiftly deported.

“Everything is to be concentrated and decided within a reasonable period [in the centers],” Seehofer said. 

Seehofer has said no one should spend more than 18 months in the new centers. For families, the maximum stay should be set at six months.

Police opposition

German police have expressed opposition to Seehofer’s plans. Members of the police union, the GdP, meeting in Berlin, voted against “many years of incarceration and isolation of people seeking protection,” and warned of “a significant potential for aggression and danger.” The GdP also rejected a plan to employ federal police in the centers.

“Let there be no mistake, as the Police Union, we say: not with us,” the head of the GdP, Jörg Radek, said. He said there were concerns about constitutionality, as well as a lack of personnel. According to the union, federal police have accrued some 2.5 million hours of overtime.

Radek added that he expected that new arrivals and those awaiting deportation would have to remain in the centers for long periods without opportunities for integration and with little money. “It is quite clear that we will see growing numbers of cases of simple theft here,” he said.

An effort to “bring down asylum standards”

The aid organization, Pro Asyl, is concerned that the centers will mean “enforced detention for up to 18 months with limited access to school, employment, society and urgently needed contact with lawyers and volunteers.” The group says the aim of the “mass reception and deportation centers” is “to test how far one can bring down human rights and the rights of asylum-seekers and restrict effective legal protection.”

Seehofer has continued to defend the centers. He said there were groups who were already criticizing the centers even before the government itself know exactly how they would be set up or who would be responsible for security. However, according to news agency reporting, the Minister has previously said the federal police would look after security at the centers.

According to Seehofer, the ministry is still working out what the centers will look like. “All that has not been decided yet.” He also rejected suggestions that they would be giant camps housing thousands of people, saying they would accommodate “around 1,000” people, adding that it could also be 1,500.

stu/sam (dpa, rtr, afp)

First published in German: 25 April, 2018

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