New Allegations of Delay Emerge in the Case of the Aschaffenburg Attacker Who Was Not Sent Back to Bulgaria
Recent developments in the case of the Aschaffenburg attacker, who was not sent back to Bulgaria due to Germany’s failure to meet the six-month deadline, have raised new concerns about bureaucratic delays. The German Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) had earlier acknowledged that it had informed the state of Bavaria 22 days late in July 2023 that the deportation was possible, allowing the deadline to slip away. According to a report by the “Spiegel” there is now evidence of a further delay at the beginning of the six-month period.
Enamullah O., the asylum seeker in question, did not submit his asylum application at the Bavarian reception center in Unterfranken, near Schweinfurt, until March 9, 2023, more than three months after his December 6, 2022, arrival. Without an asylum application, the prescribed Dublin procedure, which must precede the potential return to Bulgaria, could not begin.
Within the six-month Dublin procedure, 34 days (February 3 to March 9, 2023) passed before the asylum seeker appeared at the BAMF to submit his application. The responsibility for arranging a meeting with the BAMF lies with the respective state’s reception center, in this case, Bavaria. The center had initially scheduled a meeting for February 7, 2023, two months after Enamullah O.’s arrival in Bavaria, but the asylum seeker did not show up. The next meeting, which actually took place, was organized by the BAMF itself on March 9, 2023.