Essen (dpa / lnw) - Integration politicians and association officials report "chaotic conditions" in the immigration authorities in North Rhine-Westphalia. The waiting times were getting longer and longer.
"Tens of thousands of applications, for example for naturalization and residence permits, are unprocessed in the offices across the country," said Serdar Yüksel, a member of the Bochum state parliament, of the "Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung" (Tuesday edition). Many people could not travel to their relatives abroad or invite relatives to NRW because of incomplete papers.
In addition, migrants have problems when looking for a job, registering a business or applying for child benefit due to missing documents. "Sometimes life-threatening situations arise," warned the chairman of the petitions committee in the North Rhine-Westphalia state parliament. The SPD politician spoke of "official failure".
According to its chairman, Tayfun Keltek, the state integration council of North Rhine-Westphalia is receiving more and more calls for help from desperate people who fail in the immigration offices. The North Rhine-Westphalia Refugee Council sees a structural problem in the offices: frequently changing employees, high sick leave, pandemic-related dismissal of employees from the health authorities and always new tasks. These problems are particularly great in large cities such as Bochum, Essen, Gelsenkirchen and Cologne.
