In the affair surrounding the Bremen branch of the Federal Refugee Office (Bamf), there are apparently more manipulated asylum decisions than previously known. The internal "Bremen Test Group", which examined the files of more than 18,000 asylum seekers, has presented its findings. According to the report of 31 August, more than 2000 cases were deficient. In 145 files, the examiners found "deliberate manipulative influence" on asylum decisions, for example because "clues of identity theft" were ignored.

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The Bamf has checked nearly 13,000 files for 18,347 men, women and children who have received positive opinions since 2006 in the Bremen field office. As the Bamf informed on request, however, were not the cases of involved in the affair lawyers Irfan C. and Cahit T. under the examined files. These have already been examined separately by the Office's internal audit until May. 550 of the 1371 cases decided in Bremen by these lawyers should therefore have "not complied with the law" expired.

"The Bamf must finally disclose all numbers on the cases examined"

The Bremen public prosecutor's office is investigating allegations of asylum abuse against C. and T. as well as former Amtsleiterin Ulrike B. The accused deny the allegations. The prosecution was informed by the Bamf about the additional cases from the current examination. "The Bamf must finally disclose all the figures on the cases examined," demands Attorney Henning Sonnenberg, who represents the accused Irfan C., "and prove a possible involvement of my client."

The prosecutor has been investigating the affair since the end of 2017. In the spring of this year, the investigators searched homes and law firms and confiscated hundreds of asylum files and some incriminating e-mails.

Most recently, the Federal Court of Auditors also sent a report to the Federal Ministry of the Interior on the irregularities in Bremen. In the field office on the Weser, the reviewer concluded, "the proper application of the law in the asylum procedure was not guaranteed for years. The Bamf had also failed to clear up the grievances in Bremen earlier.

The Court of Auditors also took a tough stand with the Home Office in its test report. The supervision of the Bamf had been "completely inadequate". The Ministry now has time until October to speak, after which the Court of Auditors will present its final report.

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