3 days ago
Berlin court rules rejection of asylum seekers at borders unlawful
The Berlin Administrative Court declared on Monday that the rejection of asylum seekers at German borders to be unlawful, dealing a major blow to Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt's migration policy.
The court ruled on the case of three Somali nationals who were deported at the border with Poland, stressing that Merz's government had violated asylum laws. The court says immigrants cannot be turned away without their asylum application being examined first.
The Somali nationals, two men and one woman, were turned away at a train station after requesting asylum in the city of Frankfurt an der Oder in the east of the country after arriving from Poland on 9 May.
The court delivered its decision, which is not open to appeal, after considering emergency appeals from the immigrants.
Judges found the foreign nationals' rejection to be unlawful as they stated that at least one of the migrants had legitimate cause for asylum. They also added that the general policy of the new conservative government was lacking legal justification.
Merz's government had announced in May its new hardline migration policy which seeks to severely crackdown on irregular migrants. The new initiative pledged to completely halt the asylum process, freezing applications and turning away asylum seekers at the borders.
The court says the initiative is not in line with EU immigration policy – the Dublin system. Under the system, Berlin is obligated to thoroughly examine application and make a decision on a case-by-case basis.
It also mandates each member country to conduct a full-scale investigation to determine which member state is responsible for assessing the asylum claim once it's been made.
'The decision of the administrative court today states that a Dublin check must be carried out. This means that the border crossing has to take place, and Germany has to check which member state is responsible for the asylum procedure,' says Dobrindt.
'In this decision, the court stated that the justification for our measures should have been more specific. This means that we are also complying with this demand and providing more detailed reasons.'
Pushbacks at the borders were a campaign promise of the new Chancellor, Merz, and Interior Minister Dobrindt, although many critical voices said they were illegal. After the court decision, at least one MP called for Dobrindt to resign.
But Dobrindt insists that pushbacks will continue, adding that he believes the government does have a legal framework to support their policy.
'Incidentally, we are sticking to the pushbacks. We see that the legal basis is there and will therefore continue to proceed in this way, regardless of this individual case decision,' said Dobrindt.
The new conservative federal government had tried to legally justify turning asylum seekers away at the borders through a clause in the German Asylum Act, and an article in the Treaty on the Functioning of European Union.
Article 72 allows member states to suspend EU law in case of threats to public order. The Berlin court rejected the premise of invoking Article 72 citing insufficient evidence of a threat to the country.
