Germany advances migration IT infrastructure and AI legislation

The Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) completed a major IT migration, moving nearly 100 specialist procedures, more than 2,200 servers and 425 databases from its Nürnberg facilities to the high‑availability data centre of the IT service provider ITZBund in Bonn. The project, which began in 2017, involved over 140 staff from both agencies and upgraded the digital environment for BAMF’s operations, preparing it for future challenges such as the Common European Asylum System.

At the same time, the Federal Ministry of the Interior is advancing a draft law to allow the use of artificial intelligence across the entire migration administration, including asylum, visa and residence procedures. The proposal would amend the Asylum and Residence Act to enable automated procedural monitoring, data matching with publicly available sources, and broader use of personal data for AI training by authorities such as the foreign office, police and employment agency. Critics warn that the measures could lead to extensive exploitation of personal migration data.