A research on the mass evaluation of asylum seekers 'cell phones provides sobering figures: Since 2017, the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (Bamf) has also been able to access applicants' mobile devices when checking asylum applications if they can not prove their identity. The data should help to clarify the identity of the applicants.
However, a preliminary assessment of this intrusion into the privacy of more than 10,000 people seeking protection remains sobering.
As reported by the Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR), a request from the Bamf revealed that in 2018 just under 11,400 data carriers were read out by first-time applicants and that roughly 3,300 were evaluated. "In 33 per cent of the cases, the identity of the applicants was confirmed and refuted in two per cent," the agency responded to the BR.
Bamf saw expectations "fully fulfilled"
The findings coincide with figures from July 2018: At that time a request of the left in the Bundestag to the Federal Ministry of the Interior, quoted by the "Süddeutsche Zeitung", had yielded almost very similar values. Thus, in the analysis of 2000 phones 41 applicants were identified as alleged deceivers. For two-thirds of the evaluations, the search in mobile phones did not yield useful results.
Back in November, Bamf Vice President Markus Richter had defended the evaluation of mobile phones by seekers without papers. The "digital programs" would have "fully met" the expectations.
The domestic spokeswoman for the left, Ulla Jelpke, criticized the "disproportionateness of this mass violation of the right to informational self-determination" when accessing the mobile devices. The figures also showed that "false information from asylum seekers on a relevant scale" could not be proven.
Criticism also ignites the cost of the measure. The equipment for the Federal Office cost of a request Jelpkes to the Federal Interior Ministry according to the 2017 and 2018 about 7.6 million euros.