The German Cabinet on Wednesday approved several measures to tighten Germany’s asylum laws, including a plan to make it easier to determine “safe countries of origin” and thus to deport rejected asylum-seekers.This comes after another policy put in place by interior minister Alexander Dobrindt — allowing police to send back asylum-seekers at the border without assessment of their cases according to the Dublin procedure — was deemed unlawful by the Administrative Court in Berlin.

What did the Cabinet decide?

Dobrindt, a conservative politician from the Bavarian Christian Social Union (CSU), would like to see the government made solely responsible in the future for deciding which countries should be categorized as “safe countries of origin.”Under his plan, no approval from Germany’s upper house of parliament, or Bundesrat, which represents the 16 federal states, would be required anymore to decide whether there is persecution in a country that would justify granting asylum to people from there. This would reduce the number of people eligible for asylum and make it easier to deport rejected asylum-seekers to their home countries if these were put in the “safe” category.The Cabinet also approved the abolition of a rule calling for people in pre-deportation custody to be automatically be assigned a lawyer by the state. This rule was adopted under the previous Social Democrat-led coalition government at the behest of the Green Party.Speaking to reporters in Berlin, Dobrindt said, “These are essential steps that are part of a whole raft of measures to bring about the asylum transformation.” The reforms approved by the Cabinet, which are all contained in the government’s coalition agreement, still need approval by the lower house of parliament, the Bundestag.

Tougher migration policy faces legal challenges

Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who leads the current German coalition government of his conservative CDU/CSU bloc with the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD), has vowed to crack down on irregular migration — a policy seen by many as a bid to reduce support for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, which has been gaining in popularity. His efforts suffered a setback on Monday with the court ruling on border pushbacks but has vowed to continue with the policy “within the framework of existing European law.”

Criticism from legal experts, human rights groups:

Further criticism has also come from legal experts and from human rights groups.The German Bar Association (DAV) argued on Wednesday that the proposed reform of rules governing the definition of “safe countries” would unnecessarily complicate asylum regulations.Christoph Tometten, the DVA’s expert for migration law, said that because the planned reform applied to EU law and not the right to asylum enshrined in the German constitution, there would be “unnecessarily complex differentiations” that needed to be made by administrations and courts.This would mean that asylum proceedings could become longer rather than shorter, he said.He was referring to the fact that the German constitution requires the Bundesrat to be involved in categorizing “safe countries,” while an EU guideline allows member states to define them by decree — a guideline the German government is taking to argue its case.German refugee advocacy group Pro Asyl called the actions of the government “undemocratic and constitutionally questionable.”The organization’s spokeswoman on legal policy, Wiebke Judith, said, “The determination of allegedly safe countries of origin and third countries makes it more difficult for endangered people to receive the protection they are really entitled to.”