GAPs Stakeholder Expert-Workshop on Legal, Institutional and Policy Framework of Returns and Readmission in Germany hosted by BICC on December 12, 2023.
A snapshot from the workshop
The GAPs team at BICC organized an interdisciplinary expert workshop to discuss the preliminary findings of the Germany country case study with lawyers, academics, and representatives of the International Migration and Migration Governance Research Center "Migration, Integration and Asylum" under the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF).
The hosts, Dr. Zeynep Sahin Mencütek and Dr. Katja Mielke, introduced the project and summarized the main preliminary findings of the desk study in the first part then the discussion focused on the gaps in Germany’s return governance framework. The input by the invited experts added new aspects and dimensions to the identified seven types of gaps, i.e., gaps in the legal framework – for example between EU and national law –, in the institutional framework, in international cooperation, in databases, in management, in political communication, and in scholarship.
A group photo of the experts and researchers invited with the GAPs Project hosts
The experts’ contributions resulted in a more nuanced understanding of the legal, institutional and policy dimensions of return. Lawyer colleagues provided concrete examples from the processes of deportation and appeals. BAMF researchers shed light on the specificities of data collection, relations among actors as well as the importance of directing attention to the voluntary return programs. Scholars touched upon to the relevance of European asylum law perspective in specific areas like safe country information as well as the policy making processes and readmission agreements. The workshop results are evidence that open exchanges with a diversity of stakeholders provides a great opportunity to increase the reliability and quality of GAPs’ country specific deliverables.