German Minister of Interior Horst Seehofer pushes for the country’s registration of all asylum seeker data to be stored in centralized storage in the Central Register of Foreign Nationals (Auslanderzentralregister or AZR), reported Germany Visa.
This proposal that internationals’ details such as scanned identification cards and other details required to be granted asylum would be saved by the AZR. This move is expected to make the procedures easier, especially transmitting required info to several different, relevant agencies.
This is also expected to minimize the need for asylum seekers to present their information or additional documents when moving to another municipality.
According to Seehofer, the proposal to store the info in the AZR register “speeds up the asylum procedures and protects of misuse and identity deceit.” He also described that “the reform was a long-overdue step on the path toward a modern administration.”
In line with this, the German government has approved a draft law from the Ministry of Interior to allow the federal government and 16 states and municipalities access to foreigners’ information with the help of the Central Register of Foreign Nationals.
The current procedures give the AZR the responsibility of storing some of the internationals’ details, including those who previously and are currently living in the country. The Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) administers the information.
However, the issue comes with the fact that most of the asylum seekers’ information is stored in one of the 600 local foreigners’ offices in Germany.
While Seehofer’s proposal is expected to have positive impacts, it has not received unanimous support. Critics are concerned that the centralization of info could open opportunities for misuse.
Ulla Jelpke, a member of the opposition Left Party said that “it’s superfluous and dangerous to turn the Central Register of Foreign Nationals into a mega data dump of the foreigners’ offices.”
Germany Visa noted, “Jelpke assumed that digitalization has provided the possibility to save fewer data in a central location.” The report did not indicate whether this assumption is correct.
Another issue with this proposal is the act of keeping the data accurate and updated. According to Schengen Visa Info, AZR is having difficulties keeping the information up-to-date and that it “tended to build up excess data.”
Jelpke questioned the AZR’s ability to keep up if it will take on the entirety of foreigners’ info. Jelpke said, “Already now, the foreigners’ offices don’t manage to keep their data in the AZR up to date. How will things unfold when even more data is saved there?”
