Only 165 gross violations: Bremer BAMF scandal smaller than expected?

The excitement about the alleged violations in the BAMF branch in Bremen was great. An internal assessment of approximately 18,300 positive reports shows that very few violations have occurred.

The scandal surrounding allegedly wrongly issued asylum decisions in the branch office of the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees in Bremen is clearly not as large as previously assumed.

Of the 18,315 positive decrees issued by the Bremen subsidiary since 2000, the inspectors of the Federal Office complained in only 165 cases of a "grossly overrule of requirements" – for example, a breach of security. This reports the "Bild am Sonntag", stating a confidential final report. In the meantime, more than 1200 cases of fraud were mentioned.

A spokesperson for the Federal Ministry of the Interior confirmed that the BAMF had completed the assessment at the Bremen branch office. The final evaluation by the authority has not yet been completed. "Regardless of this, the results of the assessment can only be a partial aspect of the final assessment of the incidents in Bremen," she said.

Pro-asylum: "disastrous consequences for the public"

Since the beginning of the year, the Bremen prosecutor has been investigating the former director of the branch, Ulrike B. and various lawyers for corruption. As a result of the affair, but also from complaints about maladministration by organizations, the Federal Minister of the Interior, Horst Seehofer, announced a radical reform of the BAMF and called the authorities-boss Jutta Cordt. The employees of the field office in Bremen are currently not allowed to deal with asylum cases, but instead provide integration projects.

According to pro-asylum manager Günter Burkhardt, the case of the BAMF office in Bremen caused a disastrous public impact. "It has been suggested that people from war and crisis areas have received unfair protection and that the Federal Minister of the Interior has encouraged these prejudices with his actions," Burkhardt told the Neue Ruhr / Neue Rhein Zeitung. "We now expect the Minister of the Interior to publicly position and make clear that people from war and crisis areas need protection."