Press TV reports that German Chancellor Angela Merkel has come under pressure at home over what is deemed to be a growing scandal related to the country’s migration agency, which is charged with having granted asylum to more than 1,000 refugees in exchange for bribes at the height of the refugee crisis in Europe.
The branch of Germany’s migration agency (BAMF) in the city of Bremen is accused of having granted asylum to 1,200 refugees in return for money or gifts.
The office was stopped by the Interior Ministry last month from deciding on asylum applications. Investigators also launched a probe in April into allegations of “organised abuse of the asylum procedure” as well as “corruption or bribery.”
Now, the BAMF’s former head, Frank-Juergen Weise, has claimed that he had warned both the Interior Ministry and the Chancellor’s Office early in 2017 about the excessive workload and millions of asylum demands being placed on the agency.
“The failure lies in the inaction (of the government) when the challenges that Germany would face with the arrival of the refugees became clear,” Weise told news weekly Der Spiegel.
“The crisis could have been prevented,” added Weise, who said he personally informed Merkel on two occasions of irregularities in 2017 without concrete action being taken.
Asked for comment, a government spokesman said only that “the chancellor remained in contact with Mr Weise from the time he became head of the BAMF until the end of his tenure”.
