In May, the federal Parliament passed a law that facilitated the detention of people representing a “significant security threat” to society, pending their deportation. The law also granted the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees the power to seize the electronic devices of asylum-seekers who do not possess identity documents. In July, the state of Bavaria increased the period of administrative police detention without charge for “potential attackers” from 14 days to up to three months. RIGHT TO PRIVACY In June, the federal Parliament passed a law granting police authorities the power to use new surveillance techniques, including by installing surveillance software on computers and phones. Also in June, a Higher Administrative Court ruled in an urgent procedure that the indiscriminate retention of data prescribed by a law that was due to enter into full force in July, was not in compliance with EU law. The law was not enforced pending the final ruling. Also in June, a parliamentary committee of inquiry – established in 2013 following Edward Snowden’s revelations regarding the USA’s surveillance of its allies, including Germany – concluded that the Federal Intelligence Service had resorted to an overly broad interpretation of surveillance laws and had implemented surveillance measures, such as mass surveillance of foreign-toforeign communications, without sufficient legal basis and oversight. REFUGEES AND ASYLUM-SEEKERS There were 222,683 asylum applications made, a drop by 70.1% compared to 2016, and the decisions on 68,245 claims were pending. The right to family reunification for beneficiaries of subsidiary protection remained suspended throughout the year. This had a particularly negative impact on Syrian refugees who were increasingly granted subsidiary protection instead of full refugee status, providing them with fewer rights. 174 Despite the worsening security situation in Afghanistan, authorities continued to forcibly return Afghan nationals whose asylum claims had been rejected, in violation of the principle of non-refoulement. By the end of the year, 121 Afghan nationals had been forcibly returned. In March, the Federal Council rejected a draft law from the government that sought to classify Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia as “safe” countries of origin and to establish a fast-track procedure to determine the refugee status of applicants from those countries. Germany had relocated around 9,100 asylum-seekers who had arrived via Italy and Greece by the end of December. Germany also resettled almost 280 refugees from Egypt and Lebanon, and around 2,700 Syrian refugees from Turkey as part of the EUTurkey deal. DISCRIMINATION – HATE CRIMES In June, the second Committee of Inquiry – established by Parliament in 2015 to address the authorities’ failure to investigate the racist crimes perpetrated by the far-right group Nationalist Social Underground (NSU) between 2000 and 2007 – concluded that the authorities had to establish clear rules for infiltrating “far-right extremist” movements, provide long-term funding to civil society initiatives against racism and assist victims of racist crimes. The authorities continued to fail to launch an official investigation into the potential role of institutional racism behind Germany’s failure to investigate the crimes committed by the NSU. In the first nine months, the Interior Ministry reported 1,212 criminal offences against refugees and asylum-seekers, and 210 offences against asylum-seekers’ accommodations. Federal and state authorities continued to fail to implement a comprehensive assessment strategy to identify the risks of attacks against asylum shelters, in order to provide adequate police protection if necessary. In June, following a comprehensive consultation with civil society organizations, the federal government adopted a National Amnesty International Report 2017/18