Source: dpa
On the top of a hostel in former East Berlin, a young man from Niger waves to a group of protesters huddled amid police barriers and “Refugees welcome” banners below. The desperate man is one of 108 refugees whose asylum applications were found inadmissible by the Berlin senate and who, possibly facing eviction, have chosen to camp on the roof as a last resort.
The week-long protests unleashed a stream of heated debates in the German media, and served to highlight the parlous state of refugees in Germany. It also came as the country seeks to reform the benefits it gives to asylum seekers.
Germany has seen a sharp rise in asylum applications in the past year. The number of first time applicants in July was more than 70 percent higher than in the same month last year, totaling almost 20,000 people. Most were fleeing the war in Syria. In July alone, the figure rose by 34.1%, the Federal Office for Refugees and Migrants reported.
The influx has not gone unnoticed. Last month, the German government finally decided to update the Asylum Seeker Benefits Law. Amongst other things, it plans to increase the amount of cash given to refugees, subject to the approval of parliament and individual states.
The reforms come at a time when anti-migrant policies are gaining support in Germany. For example, the Alternative for Germany party, which plays to nationalistic tendencies, has just won seats in the state parliaments of Saxony, Thuringia and Brandenburg.
The new law could be ready as soon as the end of the year, although the Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs (BMAS) believes it could take until April next year.
But the law begs an important question: Will it actually improve the lot of asylum seekers or is it simply a plaster over a bigger problem?
(...)
