Germany’s New ‘Target State Model’ Aims to Speed Up Asylum Court Cases
A new proposal aims to streamline asylum court proceedings in Germany by focusing on the destination country of deportation. The initiative, known as the 'target state model', was introduced by several federal states in October 2023 and aims to reduce processing times and enhance decision quality.
The goal is to consolidate proceedings, allowing administrative courts to specialize in specific destination states. Justice and Migration Minister Marion Gentges has emphasized the potential of centralizing court proceedings to achieve greater specialization and improve efficiency. The proposal was approved at the 96th Conference of Justice Ministers to accelerate asylum-related legal cases by concentrating proceedings based on the target country of deportation.
The initiative was primarily driven by the states of Bavaria, Sachsen, Sachsen-Anhalt, Thüringen, and Hessen. These states called on the federal government and other states to organize asylum procedures so that courts could specialize based on target countries. The idea is that courts specializing in certain deportation states would gain deeper expertise, leading to faster processing, reduced duplication, and increased legal certainty. Baden-Württemberg's Justice and Migration Ministry has already successfully reduced processing times through a package of measures, achieving an average of 7.6 months in main proceedings and 1.5 months in expedited cases.
While the target state model has been proposed and supported by several states, a binding or nationwide implementation has not yet occurred. The introduction of such a regulation requires a change to the Asylum Act, which depends on federal approval. Currently, there is no fixed date for a nationwide rollout of the model. Pilot projects in individual states could potentially provide insights, but a comprehensive nationwide solution is still under discussion.
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