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European cooperation:
the EUAA supporting the BAMF
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EUAA Executive Director Nina GREGORI (right) and Dr Michael GRIESBECK, Vice-President of the BAMF
Source: © EUAA
The European Union Agency for Asylum (EUAA) will be providing staff to support the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) for the first time. The Executive Director of the EUAA, Nina Gregori, has approved a corresponding request from the Federal Ministry of the Interior and Community. Support staff from the EUAA will be first deployed in the BAMF's Dublin Directorate General.
In light of the continuing high volume of migration to Germany, the BAMF and the EUAA have agreed that the support deployment is to be targeted. Almost 32 percent of the total of 1.1 million asylum applications that were filed in the EU in 2023 were submitted in Germany, coming to 351,951. This meant that Germany bore the brunt of asylum applications in Europe in 2023. Germany also remains the EU State with the highest number of Dublin decisions and transfers made to other EU Member States in 2023.
Along with national efforts, taking the European level on board is able to make a major contribution towards meeting this challenge. As the EU's Agency for Asylum, the EUAA is able to provide technical and operative support to enhance solidarity and help spread the load between the Member States.
The EUAA's support staff are made up amongst others of staff from the asylum and migration authorities of other Member States who are deployed at the BAMF on a voluntary basis. The BAMF has made a major contribution to support for the EUAA in this form since 2016, in particular by deploying staff to Greece and Italy, as well as most recently to Romania. The BAMF is now to also benefit from the support contributed by EUAA support staff.
The deployment of support staff to the BAMF also offers an opportunity for a valuable exchange with the EUAA and the specialist staff of other Member States, not least against the background of the recently-adopted reform of the Common European Asylum System (CEAS), which provides for even closer cooperation between these States.