A Berlin court ruled on June 2 that turning back asylum seekers at Germany’s borders is unlawful, dealing a blow to Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s conservative-led coalition, which has vowed to impose border controls.
The court ruled in favor of three unnamed Somali applicants—two men and one woman—who were sent back to Poland from a train station in the eastern city of Frankfurt an der Oder, on Germany’s border, on the grounds that they had attempted to enter from a safe third country, according to a court statement.
“The rejection of the applicants was unlawful,” the Berlin court said in a statement, adding that the asylum application should have been processed by Germany under EU rules.
The court said that applicants could not demand to enter the Federal Republic of Germany beyond the border crossing but that the application could be processed at or near the border.
On May 7, the first day of the Merz administration, German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt issued an order telling authorities to turn back more illegal immigrants at the nation’s borders.
He said he would gradually increase the number of rejections while implementing stronger controls at Germany’s borders.
“We are not going to close the borders, but we are going to control the borders more strictly, and this stronger control of the borders will also lead to a higher number of rejections,” Dobrindt said at the time.
Dobrindt’s aims align with those of other European countries that are hardening their stance on illegal immigration.
Under the EU’s Pact on Migration and Asylum, member states can strike agreements with non-EU states to handle asylum claims extraterritorially, potentially setting up processing centers in North Africa or beyond.
Illegal immigrants are entering the EU primarily via Mediterranean sea crossings from North Africa and by overland routes through Poland and the Balkans, according to data from Frontex, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency.
Under pressure from parties with more hardline immigration platforms, establishment political parties have steadily abandoned their once-progressive immigration stances and have supported the reintroduction of internal border controls in the free-movement Schengen Area.
In 2024, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen proposed striking deals with non-EU countries from which illegal immigrants originate or through which they transit in order to halt them in those countries.
She also suggested sending those with no right to stay in the EU to “return hubs” in non-EU countries, such as Egypt, Morocco, Algeria, Mauritania, Senegal, and Mali.
No such hubs have been established yet.
On May 31, Dobrindt said that he hoped the EU could reach a bloc-wide agreement on sending illegal immigrants to third countries.
In an interview with the Welt am Sonntag newspaper published on May 31, he said the approach of using third countries could work only if there was a Europe-wide consensus.
“We need third countries that are prepared to take migrants who are objectively unable to return to their home countries,” he told the newspaper. “No individual EU member state can create this model on its own: it will have to happen on an EU level. We are preparing the foundations for that right now.”
Reuters contributed to this report.
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