Proposed amendments regarding unaccompanied refugee minors, planned by the Family Ministry, are causing significant anger among professional associations and opposition members in the Bundestag. According to Lennart Scholz, a representative of the Federal Professional Association for Minors and Refugee (BuMF), making a residency requirement with the threat of fines solely for refugee children and youths would be a discriminatory practice that fails to solve underlying problems. He stated that the proposed changes are “unconstitutional and violate European law”.
Currently, unaccompanied minors from abroad arriving in Germany are assigned to local youth welfare offices, which are responsible for their accommodation and support. The federal government reports that in 2022/2023, care was discontinued for more than one in ten minors because they had left their assigned residences. The pending bill proposes a fine in such cases, ostensibly for the minors’ “better protection”.
Heidi Reichinnek, the Fraktion Chairwoman for The Left Party, dismissed the proposal as “absolute nonsense”. She argued that minors in the care of the youth welfare office are incapable of paying fines, stating that the measure effectively amounts to unnecessary criminalization and could be easily avoided if the minors’ interests were genuinely considered.
Denise Loop, the Green Party’s spokeswoman for youth policy, characterized the measure as a restriction on freedom for foreign children and youths. She told the press that this sends a “fatal signal and can severely complicate their integration”. Loop emphasized that unaccompanied foreign minors are fundamentally children and youths and should be treated as such.