German court rules border pushbacks of asylum seekers are illegal
Friedrich Merz (ANI)
BERLIN: The new German government's policy of turning asylum seekers away at its borders is illegal, a court ruled Monday, dealing a blow to one of conservative Chancellor Friedrich Merz's flagship measures.
"Persons who express the wish to seek asylum while at a border check on German territory may not be sent back" before it has been determined which state is responsible for processing the claim under the EU's so-called "Dublin" system, Berlin's Administrative Court said in a statement.
Monday's decision follows an appeal made by three Somali nationals who went through an immigration check at a train station on the Polish border.
They expressed their wish to claim asylum but were sent back to Poland the same day.
The new policy of pushing back almost all undocumented migrants at Germany's borders, including asylum seekers, was quickly introduced after Merz's government took office early last month.
A crackdown on irregular migration was a key plank of Merz's platform for February's general election.
That vote saw the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) score its best-ever result of just over 20 percent, and Merz insists that action on migration is the only way to halt the party's growth.
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