The so-called KI-Migrationsverwaltungsgesetz (KIMVG) bill was approved by the German cabinet on Wednesday, July 29, and builds on the principles for the use of AI in migration procedures agreed upon by the government back in November 2025. At the same time, the ultra-left human rights organization Pro Asyl called the initiative “extremely dangerous.” But nothing else was to be expected from them. And like all populists, the organization’s representatives sharply criticized the idea without offering an alternative solution.
The goal – to speed up and standardize procedures
Deputy government spokesman Steffen Meyer said on Wednesday in Berlin that the goal of the new law is to make administrative procedures in the area of asylum and residence more efficient, uniform, high-quality and secure. According to him, the approved document creates the legal basis for the use of AI technologies in the automated processing of data by the immigration authorities, while complying with legal requirements and data protection.
The drafters present the bill as part of the government’s course toward digitalizing public administration. The impetus for its creation was the high number of asylum and visa applications combined with the immigration service’s limited staffing capacity. The right to apply the new system will be granted to BAMF, the Foreigners’ Registration Office, the immigration service, and the German Foreign Ministry.
What the new law provides for
According to the text of the document, the new processes will allow applicants’ personal data to be processed using so-called “artificial intelligence” systems. This is meant to help migration service staff:
- identify contradictory, incomplete or atypical information in applications;
- recognize structural patterns in submitted asylum applications;
- in individual cases, cross-check information from an application against publicly available information on the internet – but only where there are substantiated doubts about its accuracy.
At the same time, as the bill emphasizes, the final decision in each case remains entirely within the competence of the immigration official handling the specific case. The results of the work of so-called “AI systems” are not to be decisive in reaching a final decision. The drafters also stated that “discriminatory algorithms” would be excluded from the application of these technologies.
The issue of the security of applicants’ personal data was addressed separately: information obtained by the AI system relating to an applicant’s private life may not be used further, and records of it must be deleted immediately.
Technologies of this kind have already been used in the immigration service for several years. Since 2017, BAMF has used the DIAS dialect recognition system to determine an applicant’s country of origin from their speech. And it is precisely because of the introduction of this system that certain activists have for years pointed to one problem – applicants find it difficult to understand the basis on which the algorithm arrived at its final decision.
Pro Asyl: a risk to fundamental human rights
Pro Asyl lawyer Wiebke Judith called the bill extremely dangerous. She stressed that the procedures in question affect human lives. In her words, the document does not adequately protect fundamental human rights and procedural transparency, and effectively eliminates applicants’ ability to appeal in the courts.
“It is precisely in matters concerning protection from persecution that the state cannot rely on opaque decision-making processes governed by unknown algorithms,” Judith noted.
Pro Asyl warned that under this approach, the following could be put at risk:
- the fairness of application review procedures;
- the ability to file an appeal;
- the right to privacy;
- protection from discrimination.
In the view of Pro Asyl representatives, the bill does not sufficiently specify how, by whom, and for what purpose AI will be applied in immigration procedures, nor does it guarantee adequate protection of personal data or mechanisms to prevent discriminatory decisions. Algorithm Watch took a similar position, accusing the government of effectively turning applicants into test subjects for underdeveloped algorithms.
Further demands to the Bundestag
The Pro Asyl representative described the so-called “gaps” they identified as incompatible with the principles of the rule of law. The organization has appealed to the Bundestag with a demand to reject the bill in its current form or substantially revise it before the vote.
Why this matters
After approval by the cabinet, the bill will move on to the Bundestag and Bundesrat, where a vote on the matter is planned for this autumn. Until the parliamentary procedure is complete, the new rules for the review of applications by state authorities will not be applied in practice. Members of parliament will have to weigh both the government’s arguments about speeding up and standardizing procedures and the activists’ position on the alleged risks to applicants’ fundamental rights.
Source: AFP, dpa
