Erfurt (dpa/th) - The planned new State Office for Migration should not lead to an increase in staff. "The fear was that a new authority would be created from scratch, that new staff would be needed, new resources needed. It won't be like that," Thuringia's Migration Minister Doreen Denstädt (Greens) told the German Press Agency. You have already started the first processes to create such a state office. "We are restructuring certain areas." A change in the law is planned. Denstädt has not yet given any details.
The structure of the State Office for Migration should have a lasting effect beyond the current legislature. "You really have to think holistically," she said. These included topics such as education, recruiting skilled workers, medical care and accommodation for refugees. "It's a very broad topic and it's always cross-departmental."
The personnel issue was long considered one of the obstacles to the creation of the State Office for Migration. The former Migration Minister Dirk Adams (Greens) had reportedly insisted on more staff, which is why there was no agreement within the state government for a long time.
According to Denstädt, instead of an increase in staff, administrative processes are now to be optimized. The Ministry of Migration will be in charge, she said.
Currently, the issue of migration in Thuringia is not entirely in one hand. In the state administration office, for example, there are two departments that deal primarily with migration issues: Department 740 "Migration, Integration and Return Management" and Department 750 "Initial reception, immigration and nationwide distribution". They are subject to the legal supervision of the Ministry of the Interior, but the technical supervision of the Ministry of Justice and Migration.
It was initially unclear whether the new state administration office should then be created as an independent authority or as a department in the migration ministry - comparable to the state office for the protection of the constitution in the interior ministry.
