The Berlin Administrative Court ruled that refusing asylum seekers at Germany’s borders is illegal, German media reported on Tuesday.
This is a big blow to the migration policy of German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt. The court said that rejecting asylum seekers breaks German law and doesn’t fit with the EU’s Dublin system. Under this system, Berlin is obliged to carefully examine each application and make a decision on a case-by-case basis.
The court ruled on the case of three Somali citizens who were deported at the border with Poland, emphasising that Merz’s government had violated asylum laws. The court stated that immigrants cannot be refused without prior consideration of their asylum applications.
The Somali citizens, two men and one woman, were refused at the train station after they applied for asylum in Frankfurt an der Oder in the east of the country on May 9 after arriving from Poland.
The federal government tried to legally justify denying asylum seekers entry at the borders by using a clause in Germany’s asylum law and an article in the EU Treaty. Article 72 lets member states suspend EU laws if there’s a threat to public order.
The Berlin court rejected the argument that Article 72 could be applied, citing insufficient evidence of a threat to the country.
This May, Merz government announced its new tough migration policy aimed at combating illegal migrants. The new initiative promised to completely halt the asylum process, freeze applications and turn away asylum seekers at the borders. Solving the problem of illegal migrants was a pre-election promise made by the new Chancellor Merz and Interior Minister Dobrindt.
