The German court system has been brought “to the limits” due to the massive number of asylum cases waiting to be challenged, the Association of German Administrative Law Judges warned Thursday.
Robert Seegmüller, the organization’s chair, said the courts have piled up a huge backlog, with 250,000 asylum decisions waiting to be challenged in court.
“The situation is dramatic for administrative courts,” Seegmüller told German news outlet Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland (RND), according to The Local. “We are now completely stretched to our limits.”
Seegmüller warned that a collapse of the court system is inevitable unless authorities invest more resources and hire more personnel.
“The administrative court system cannot endure such a figure in the long run. At some point, everything will collapse,” Seegmüller told RND. “Things may go well for a while, but not permanently.”
Some courts have reported a backlog of up to two years due to the extreme situation of more than 1 million migrants arriving in Germany. Thousands of asylum seekers have taken legal action against the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) for failing to make a decision on their asylum applications in a timely manner. (RELATED: Thousands Of Refugees Sue Germany Over Asylum Wait Times)
A court ruled in favor of a Somalian man in October 2015, saying that BAMF had to compensate the applicant if his application was not processed within a reasonable timeframe. The court’s ruling stated that applicants should be able to expect decisions within three months. Under extreme circumstances, such as the current refugee influx, BAMF can take up to six months to process a request.
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