Germany’s tough new migration approach, which involves turning asylum seekers back at the border, has been described as unlawful by Berlin’s federal administrative court.
The ruling, which cannot be appealed, undercuts a pledge by Chancellor Friedrich Merz and his government, sworn in last month, to cut immigration numbers.
Monday’s case was taken by three Somali nationals, two men and a woman, turned back on May 9th by German border police at the railway station in Frankfurt an der Oder to Poland.
The police, acting under a new regulation passed by the federal interior ministry, refused to allow the three to file for asylum in Germany and returned them to Poland the same day. The police sent them back, the government ruled in court, because they were coming from a safe third country.
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On Tuesday the court said the border police actions, and the regulation they were following, ignored necessary legal steps and violated asylum provisions.
[ EU warns Poland for suspending Dublin migrant regulationOpens in new window ]
“Persons who express the wish to seek asylum while at a border check on German territory may not be sent back,” the court ruled. At least, it added, until it is known which European country has frontline responsibility for their asylum application under the EU’s Dublin system.
Until Monday the interior ministry had cited emergency provisions and a danger to public order as its justifications for setting aside EU law. In court it argued that one quarter of the 230,000 asylum applications filed last year in Europe were filed in Germany.
The court dismissed this argument, saying “it remains open what these numbers mean for public order or security”. It also criticised the unilateral nature of Berlin’s new policy as contradicting the “loyal co-operation” required of EU member states “to look, in a serious way, for common solutions”.
The opposition Green Party called the ruling as a “severe defeat” for Chancellor Merz and his interior minister, Alexander Dobrindt.
[ Germany increases border checks: Alexander Dobrindt oversees radical policy shiftOpens in new window ]
“Merz and Dobrindt ignored the warnings and broke EU law, and have now run into a brick wall,” said Katharina Dröge, Green co-leader.
Green Bundestag parliamentary floor leader Irene Mihalic called the ruling a warning to the government “to abide by the law in the future and not to knowingly exceed its own powers for populist purposes”.
Germany’s police union also welcomed the ruling, saying “the approach was legally iffy from the start”.
Immigration lobby group Pro Asyl said an “unlawful practice of national unilateral action in asylum policy has failed, this nonsense must now come to an end”.
Mr Dobrindt insisted on Monday evening he would stick to his policy.
“There is a legal basis for it, regardless of individual case rulings,” he said, adding that the three plaintiffs had sought to enter Germany three times previously.
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