The asylum lawsuits in Brandenburg increase: Procedure last forever!

The asylum lawsuits in Brandenburg increase: Procedure last forever!

Brandenburg, Deutschland - The number of asylum lawsuits in Brandenburg recorded a significant increase last year. According to information from Merkur there were a total of 6,138 new legal proceedings for complained asylum seekers. For comparison: 2023 2,790 new procedures and only 2,614 procedures were registered in 2022. Brandenburg does not do well during the proceedings and is located in the penultimate place in the federal states, with an average duration of 22.7 months for 2024.

The situation is not limited to Brandenburg. The number of asylum suits has also increased in Berlin. Here, a total of 6,124 lawsuits were submitted to the administrative court in 2024, an increase compared to 5,665 complaints in 2023 and 4,172 lawsuits in 2022. In contrast to Brandenburg, however, the Berlin administrative courts recorded shorter procedures, which in 2024 was 17.8 months. In 2023 it was still 21.1 months and in 2022 the value was 26.9 months. These developments are part of a general trend in Germany, where the total number of new asylum lawsuits in 2024 reached over 100,000 cases, such as Tagesspiegel reported.

challenges and procedural lengths

The increasing number of cases present the administrative courts with major challenges, especially since the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) accelerated case processing. The federal manager of the German judge, Sven Rebehn, has expressed concerns that the ever increasing complaints could lead to residues during the procedural times. He emphasizes the need for specialized asylum chambers and additional judges to meet the increasing number of procedures. As a goal, the prime ministerial conference has formulated a maximum procedural period of a maximum of six months, which is a major challenge for the current figures.

For a better context, it is important to mention that the asylum figures in Germany have increased in total in recent years. The increase is also due to geopolitical developments, especially on the Russian attack war on Ukraine. Since February 24, 2022, numerous people from Ukraine have been looking for refuge in Europe. According to the Federal Center for Political Education , around 1.2 million protection seekers from Ukraine were registered in the German Central Register until mid-October 2024. Many of these people do not apply asylum and are therefore not recorded in the BAMF numbers.

Development of the lawsuit quota

The lawsuit against decisions of the BAMF has also increased in recent years. In 2023, 80,245 decisions of the BAMF were complained about, which corresponds to a lawsuit of 30.7 %. In 2022, this quota was 32.2 %. The lawsuit is particularly striking for rejected asylum applications, which was 58.8 % in 2023. In 2022 it was 64.1 %, during this value in 2021 at 57.2 % and in 2020 at 73.3 %. This makes it clear that the legal system is increasingly being used in relation to asylum procedures, which presents both the courts and the political managers with great challenges.