FDP parliamentary group leader questions subsidiary protection for “very many refugees”

FDP parliamentary group leader Christian Dürr questions the protection of refugees who are considered threatened in their country of origin but have no right to asylum, for example.

“After the European elections, we also need an open debate about whether the subsidiary protection that many refugees use to come to us is still appropriate in this form,” Dürr told the newspapers of the Funke media group on Wednesday. “Brussels can change that in concrete terms. People rightly expect us to deal with these issues.”

Those entitled to subsidiary protection are those who are granted neither asylum nor refugee protection, but who could be at risk of harm in their home country. Often, people are fleeing civil wars; other reasons include the death penalty in their home country or torture.

In Germany, many Syrians have this protection status. CSU leader Markus Söder recently called for the abolition of subsidiary protection for migrants from Afghanistan and Syria.

The basis of the German rules is EU law. The EU Commission could theoretically propose changing the relevant EU laws, but it cannot decide this itself. The governments of the EU states and the European Parliament would have to negotiate the authority’s proposal.