The Common European Asylum System (GEAS) takes effect immediately. In Germany, the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) is responsible for its implementation. The Nuremberg-based authority is approaching the reform with confidence but also expects initial difficulties, as Bavarian Broadcasting reports.
BAMF project manager Volker Mäulen told BR that he is approaching the reform “with great confidence.” The office has trained around 5,000 employees and continues to provide further training. The GEAS reform is a change unlike anything he has experienced in 30 years at the BAMF. In the future, there will be various asylum procedures, including fast-track procedures at up to eight German airports, including Munich Airport. There, arriving refugees are screened by the Federal Police – biometric data, health status, security risks – and the data is stored in the EU database Eurodac.
Based on the screening, BAMF employees decide whether a refugee may enter, receives a fast-track procedure at the airport, or is returned. The fast-track procedure is intended for people without a passport or visa or from countries with a recognition rate below 20 percent and may last a maximum of twelve weeks. For comparison: the average processing time for an asylum application in 2025 was over twelve months. Mäulen emphasizes that the procedure is “very compressed and fast, but certainly no less thorough.”
Migration researcher Petra Bendel from the University of Erlangen considers the EU deadlines for the border procedures to be “very ambitious” in response to a BR inquiry. In complicated cases, individual protection cannot be examined so quickly, which could lead to backlogs or erroneous procedures. New challenges also include the mandatory audio recording of hearings and free legal advice for refugees at the field offices.
Source: BR
