Dublin procedure: Germany fails due to Dublin returns

In the years 2023 and 2024, the German immigration authorities did not succeed in transferring asylum seekers to the responsible EU partner after the Dublin procedure-although in all of these cases there was the formal consent of the respective country. This emerges from statistics from the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees who are available to the German Press Agency.

One of these cases was the alleged attacker of Aschaffenburg, who should have been transferred to Bulgaria. However, the transmission of modest on the authorities took so long that the period of six months – starting on the day of the promising country – could no longer be observed.

First invisible land responsible for entrants

The Dublin process is part of the common European asylum system. One of the regulations states that in many cases the state is responsible for processing the asylum procedure in which the refugee first entered EU floor. If the refugees travel further to other EU countries and only apply for the asylum application – which often happens in Germany – the first line -up for people has to withdraw people under certain conditions.

In 2023, Germany asked a total of 74,622 cases to transfer to an EU country, in 55,728 cases the partner countries agreed. In fact, only 5,053 people were transferred to not every tenth. In 2024, the balance sheet looked only slightly better: In 74,583 cases, the transfer was requested by Germany, in 44,431 cases it was approved by the European partners. But only in 5,827 cases the transfer actually took place.

Hardly anyone takes Italy back

The reasons for the weak success rates are at home and abroad. It is known that some countries – especially Italy – agree to the withdrawal, but in practice, however, unfulfilled conditions for the withdrawal of Dublin refugees and thus make the excess almost impossible. Italy only took three Dublin cases back from Germany in 2024, but had granted returns to withdrawal for more 10,000 cases.

There are other reasons in Germany, for example if the German authorities do not process the cases in time. In the Aschaffenburger case, 4.5 months of the six -month period had passed before the Federal Office for Migration of the local immigration authority in Aschaffenburg announced the Dublin return – the final decision only arrived in Aschaffenburg a few days before the deadline.

In other cases, German courts prevent transfers, such as in countries such as Croatia. The judges see the risk that the asylum seekers will not receive a rule of law there or that the accommodation conditions do not meet the minimum requirements.