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The right of asylum for victims of political persecution is a basic right stipulated in the Constitution of Germany. In a wider sense, the right of asylum recognises the definition of 'refugee' as established in the 1951 Refugee Convention and is understood to protect asylum seekers from deportation and grant them certain protections under the law. Generally, these protections are a part of the asylum procedure itself and are verified by the Federal Office For Migration and Refugees (Bundesamt für Migration und Flüchtlinge, 'BAMF') without any further application.[1]
In 1993 and 2015, the initially unlimited right of asylum was revised in essential points and also limited. In light of the refugee crisis in the second half of 2015, a transformation of the fundamental right of asylum (section 16a GG) into an objective guarantee was demanded in order to give the state the legal opportunity to impose an upper limit or quota.