Germany updates: Merz set for inaugural trip to US – DW – 06/04/2025
06/04/2025
June 4, 2025 Germany seeking easier process to declare countries safe in asylum curbs
The German government is looking at a simpler process when it comes to declaring countries of origin as safe, under a push by the new conservative-led coalition to reduce the number of asylum seekers.
Chancellor Merz's Cabinet approved a draft policy in which a country can be declared safe with a simple statutory order and where the consent of the Bundesrat (Germany's upper house of parliament) is no longer needed.
Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt said the move was part of a whole package of "national measures (...) to implement the asylum turnaround."
Under German asylum law, "safe countries of origin" are seen as those where people are not subject to political persecution or inhuman punishment.
Migrants seeking asylum from these countries are likely to have asylum applications rejected, apart from exceptional cases.
Deportations back to safe countries will also face fewer legal obstacles. Opposition lawmakers from the Green party have criticized the draft as contrary to German law, as have asylum and immigration NGOs.
The reform still needs to be approved by the lower house of parliament, the Bundestag.
The announcement comes just days after a court declared the government's tightened border security, including the turning back of asylum seekers, to be illegal under German law.
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It expressly referred to the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (EU) and the associated ban on inhumane treatment. The court listed: Inadequate hygiene conditions, lack of access to hot water, bedbugs, poor and little food, extreme temperatures in winter and summer, poor lighting and ventilation in the cells, violence against prisoners by fellow prisoners and prison staff, and rule of law deficits. The Berlin Court of Appeal is responsible for the unlawful extradition. The Constitutional Court accuses the appeals court of ignoring current information on overcrowding and prison conditions in Hungarian prisons. A 'political trial' However, the successful constitutional complaint came too late: Maja T. had already been extradited. Maja T.'s father, Wolfram Jarosch, traveled to Budapest at the start of the trial to offer his 24-year-old child moral support. On the phone with DW, he described the criminal proceedings as a "political trial." 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Rackete believes it is unlikely that this will change. The MEP calls on German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and the German government to exert pressure on Hungary: If you seriously want to distance yourself from right-wing extremists and stand up for democratic values, you cannot stand idly by while Orban's regime destroys human lives in Hungarian courts, Rackete argues. No further extradition of suspected left-wing extremists Six suspected left-wing extremists, who had been in hiding and are also believed to have been involved in the attacks on suspected neo-Nazis in Budapest in 2023, were luckier than Maja T. The group voluntarily handed themselves in to the German authorities in January. They apparently do not have to fear extradition to Hungary, as the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office confirmed to DW on request. Accordingly, the public prosecutors responsible for the extradition proceedings were informed in writing that the investigations in Germany have priority. This means that, should charges be brought, the proceedings would take place in Germany. *Editor's note: DW follows the German press code, which stresses the importance of protecting the privacy of suspected criminals or victims and urges us to refrain from revealing full names in such cases. This article was originally written in German. While you're here: Every Tuesday, DW editors round up what is happening in German politics and society. You can sign up here for the weekly email newsletter, Berlin Briefing.
