The Berlin Administrative Court ruled yesterday that the German government's decision to return asylum seekers at the country's borders was illegal, DPA reported, BTA reported.
The court's emergency ruling is a blow to Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who has promised to tighten measures against migration, the agency notes.
Shortly after taking office last month, Merz's government instructed police that it could return illegal migrants at the border even if they applied for asylum.
The court ruled in favor of three Somalis who were returned to Poland on May 9 from the German border city of Frankfurt an der Oder, ruling that their cases should have been processed under the so-called The European Union's Dublin procedure for examining asylum applications. The three arrived in Frankfurt an der Oder by train from Poland and were sent back to Poland the same day. The court's decision cannot be appealed, the Financial Times reported.
Germany is "obliged" to "fully carry out the procedure determining which member state is responsible for examining the asylum application," the court ruled, citing EU rules.
Since the applicants had expressed a desire to apply for asylum when questioned by the police, that assessment "should have been carried out in Germany," the court ruled. He added that the German state had failed to prove that the three Somalis posed a threat to public order.
However, it is not mandatory for asylum seekers to be allowed to enter German territory without restrictions, the court ruled.
Under EU rules under the Dublin Regulation, asylum seekers' applications must be processed by the first member state they arrive in. Similar countries, such as Italy or Greece, often do not apply the Dublin Regulation, allowing migrants to travel to be registered in other countries where they may have family or friends. Then it is practically difficult to return them to the country on first entry.
Merz, who was elected in February, announced the policy of returning migrants at the border during his election campaign after an Afghan asylum seeker fatally stabbed a two-year-old child and an elderly man in the Bavarian town of Aschaffenburg, the “Financial Times“ recalls.
The leader of the German conservatives promised these measures, which were implemented on the first day of his term as chancellor by Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt, amid growing support for the far-right, anti-immigrant party “Alternative for Germany“ (AfD), which came in second place in the parliamentary elections with more than a fifth of the vote.
The AfD has taken advantage of the attacks in Germany, carried out by migrants, to justify its calls for a plan for “remigration“ or mass deportations of immigrants.
During his election campaign, Merz tried but failed to push through parliament a proposal to block asylum seekers from entering the country, instead drawing outrage from parties across the political spectrum after the AfD supported the proposal, the “Financial Times“ recalls.