The ex-head of the Bremen BAMF refugee agency is being condemned by media and her superiors before the trial, her lawyer said. She is under investigation for irregularities in processing hundreds of asylum applications.
It was not right that "those who are entrusted with her welfare, that is, her superiors, including the [interior] minister, now make accusations without listening to her legal case," Erich Joester told broadcasters Radio Bremen and NDR and the daily Süddeutsche Zeitung.
Joester rejected the allegations that his client, identified under German privacy laws only as Ulrike B., had accepted money from asylum applicants, calling them "nonsense."
He also denied that she had paid money to lawyers so asylum-seekers were deliberately taken to the northern city of Bremen, where she was in charge of the regional branch of Germany's Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF), to have their applications filed. He said such transfers had occurred, but that this was done with the knowledge of BAMF headquarters in Nuremberg because other regional offices had been unable to cope with the number of applications made.
Germany's Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) is under fire over allegations that officials in some branches may have accepted bribes in exchange for granting asylum. Thousands of cases will be re-examined.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/J. Stratenschulte
Corruption scandal at BAMF
On April 20, 2018, a number of employees at the regional BAMF office in Bremen were accused of having illegally accepted hundreds of asylum applicants between 2013 and 2017, mainly from Iraq's Yazidi community. Bremen public prosecutors announced that six people, including the former director of the Bremen BAMF office, were under investigation for alleged corruption in about 1,200 cases.
Image: picture alliance/dpa/Geisler-Fotopress
Damage control
Steffen Seibert, spokesman for German Chancellor Angela Merkel, reacted swiftly to the allegations, saying it would be wrong to speculate on what consequences the incident could have for the BAMF immigration offices. He said that the "extremely serious allegations" would first have to be resolved. The BAMF scandal could be a major embarrassment to Chancellor Merkel's open-door policy to refugees.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/K. Nietfeld
The plot thickens
A few weeks into the scandal, German media reported that 13 further regional BAMF branches were going to be subject to checks regarding their approval of asylum applications. The branches had apparently come under scrutiny for showing noticeable differences in the number of asylum applications accepted or rejected in comparison to other offices. Some 8,000 applications will have to be re-checked.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/J. Stratenschulte
BAMF head under fire
A month into the scandal, details emerged that BAMF had been informed about the possible improprieties in Bremen earlier than thought, German news magazine Der Spiegel reported. The irregularities were reportedly flagged back in February 2017. In the light of the growing scandal, BAMF head Jutta Cordt announced that some 18,000 asylum decisions made in Bremen since 2000 now had to be re-checked.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/B. von Jutrczenka
Seehofer to face parliamentary committee
German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer meanwhile confirmed that he would testify before a special meeting of the Bundestag internal affairs committee to be convened at the request of the Green Party. The committee hopes to avoid a full-blown parliamentary investigation, which two other opposition parties — the populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) and the center-right FDP — are calling for.
Image: picture alliance/dpa/D. Karmann
Man of the hour
This might be the man who would have to answer some serious questions if a comprehensive parliamentary inquiry should be launched. Thomas de Maiziere was Germany's interior minister until the beginning of the year, overseeing the management of asylum application at the height of the refugee crisis. De Maiziere, an ally of Merkel's, criticized the shortcomings of the assessment system in the past.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/M. Schreiber
Stripped of authority
On May 23, the German Interior Ministry prohibited the regional BAMF office in Bremen from deciding whether individual refugees will be given asylum in the country. Seehofer said an internal BAMF report had shown that "legal regulations and internal policies" had been "disregarded" at the center.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/M. Assanimoghaddam
Federal Police join probe
The city of Bremen has said Germany's Federal Criminal Police are now part of the inquiry into the wide-ranging corruption. The decision came after a crisis meeting on the scandal surrounding the city's asylum procedure for refugees.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/ZB/M. Toedt
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'Mad' allegation
Joester was even more vehement in his rejection of an accusation by BAMF's internal audit department that Ulrike B. had ignored the principle of dual control in her decisions.
He called the charge a "product of the madhouse," as the regulation had been introduced after the period in which the alleged mispractices occurred.
"How can someone be accused of violating a regulation when this regulation did not yet even exist?" he said. He added that the allegation was even more absurd considering that his client had herself espoused the adoption of the dual-control principle, which requires a second signature on each decision taken.
BAMF headquarters introduced the principle on September 1, 2017. The cases of alleged mispractice occurred between 2013 and 2016.
Germany's refugee agencies have been put under unprecedented strain since 2015 by a huge influx of asylum-seekers, many fleeing conflicts in the Middle East. There is a current backlog of some 50,000 applications.
Four other employees at the Bremen BAMF office are also under investigation for alleged corruption.
