On the Zugspitze: Migration Meeting: Why Dobrindt invites you to the Zugspitze

Together with five counterparts from other EU countries, Federal Minister of the Interior Alexander Dobrindt (CSU) wants to stand up for a harder asylum course in Europe. The place of the shoulder is to be the Zugspitze, Germany’s highest mountain. What it is about:

Protection of the EU external borders

The tightened German border controls trigger irritation in some neighboring countries. However, it is agreed with better protection of the EU external borders. The most important routes for irregular migrants lead over the eastern and central Mediterranean and from West Africa to Europe. According to Dobrindt’s ideas, the EU border protection agency Frontex should be “massively expanded”, as he told the “Focus”. The EU Commission is already planning a significant strengthening of Frontex in order to significantly improve its operational skills in border management and repatriations.

Deportations to countries without reference to the person concerned

Dobrindt would like to abolish the so -called connecting element. So far, the EU asylum reform adopted last year stipulates that asylum seekers cannot be deported to third countries, to which they have no concrete reference.

The request for a loss of this connection element can also be found in a proposal by the EU Commission on the reform of the return directive. EU migration commissioner Magnus Brunner had already presented this in spring.

So far, asylum seekers may only be deported to a third country if they have a close personal connection, for example through family or a longer stay. This element should be significantly restricted according to the commission proposal. The aim of the reform is to promote returns from people without protection status.

Send migrants to non -European countries

Dobrindt wants to make deportations to Afghanistan and Syria possible again. But such a procedure will not work with every country, said the CSU politician that it needs third countries who are ready to take over migrants who could not be laid down to their home countries, he recently said the “Welt am Sonntag”.

In an interview with the “Augsburger Allgemeine” in front of the summit, Dobrindt did not conclude returns to Pakistan if rejected asylum seekers could not return to their homeland in Afghanistan. “Even if it is not about this specific case – the principle is to accommodate people in neighboring regions of their countries of origin, in which there are often members of these population groups,” he explained.

From Dobrindt’s perspective, such third -country solutions are a central component to put criminal smuggish. States would be considered “that are established as transit countries or can be recognized as evil states,” he told the “Focus”.

Such structures are already being worked on at the EU level. Part of the commission proposal for the reform of the return directive are also so -called return centers. These are institutions in which national authorities, together with EU agencies such as Frontex, should coordinate and prepare returns.

The return guideline is not legally part of the common European asylum system (GEAS), but is politically related to its reform. While GEAS primarily regulates asylum procedures and responsibilities, the return guideline affects persons without the right to stay. The proposal is currently advised by the EU member states and the European Parliament. An agreement is still pending.

Asylum applications decrease overall

The number of asylum applications in the European Union as well as in Norway and Switzerland has dropped – especially in Germany. Many people continue to look for protection in Europe, but in May 2025 around 63,700 asylum applications were made in May 2025 in May 2025. That is significantly less than in the same month with around 85,600.

In Germany, the number almost halved, from around 18,800 in May 2024 to just under 9,900 a year later. The number also decreased significantly in Spain (decline from 16,300 to 12,800 applications) and Italy (from 15,500 to 12,300). In France, the level with around 12,500 applications changed only a little – in the same month in the previous year there were 11,900.

Poland sees itself in an emergency

Poland claims an exception to the EU asylum pact closed in 2024, and the redistribution of migrants does not agree. This is justified with a double emergency: Poland has taken up about two million people from Ukraine, and it also defends itself on the eastern border against an influx of migrants directed by Belarus.

There is displeasure there about the stricter German border controls, in conservative circles the suspicion was circulating that Germany pushed refugees to Poland who do not come from there.

Austria wants consistent deportations

A strict anti-migration course has been established in Austria for many years and has been popular with the population. Specifically, the Alpine Republic calls for strong protection of the EU external borders and consistent deportations. It controls the limits to several neighboring countries. The current cooperation with Germany in rejection of migrants by the Federal Republic works smoothly according to both sides.

Otherwise, the country relies on European solutions and changes in the definition of secure third countries in which it is easier to deport them. Chancellor Christian Stocker (ÖVP) has recently emphasized several times that the European Convention on Human Rights must be interpreted.

France for longer deportation

Like Dobrindt, the conservative French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau is located in a significantly harder course in migration policy. He wants to take migrants in deportation longer, declare the illegal stay in the country as a criminal offense and, if necessary, deport them in third countries if the country of origin does not want to withdraw a migrant from France.

He has already instructed the authorities in the country several times for a stricter course. He insists on a more restrictive award of Visa and residence papers for illegally entered who have work and income. He wants to tighten the border controls that France has been doing in the fight against terrorism for ten years.

Czech government for more border protection

The Liberal Conservative Government in the Czech Republic has been calling for a stricter migration and asylum policy in Europe for years, especially better protection of the external borders and greater cooperation with third countries. She wants to tighten the right to asylum herself.

Prime Minister Petr Fiala is under pressure from further right: The increasingly right -wing populist opposition party Ano of the billionaire Andrej Babis is ahead of the parliamentary election in early October. The border controls are a thorn in the side of the government in Prague, but it relies on dialogue with Berlin.

Denmark looks at migration and security together

Denmark has long been a hardliner in the EU when it comes to migration policy. A prestige project by the government of the Social Democratic Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen to send asylum seekers to the East African Rwanda was temporarily put on hold in early 2023 – but it is not yet off the table. Rather, Germany’s northern neighbor has been working on making the idea of other EU countries tasty since then.

As the current EU chairmanship, Denmark wants to put a main focus on security in Europe against the background of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine-a topic that is also related to migration issues from a Danish perspective. Foreign and Integration Minister Kaare Dybvad Bek, according to the Danish news agency Ritzau, is certain in advance that the meeting of the migration-critical countries will be a “turning point in European refugee policy on Friday”.

“How much harder should it be?” Asks Ruben Neugebauer from the refugee organization Leave No One Behind. “The suffering of Europe’s external borders is already immeasurable, thousands of people are drowning, freezing or suffocating in search of peace and freedom.” The domestic political spokesman for the Green Group, Marcel Emmerich, says: “The cancellation of the connecting element is a heartless attack on those seeking protection, families and children who are to be deported to countries without any personal commitment.”