Dealing with asylum seekers: impending coalition dispute over rejections

After the Berlin court decision against rejections to limits, the government coalition threatens disputes about the further procedure. Federal Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt (CSU) confirmed in the newspapers of the Funke media group to adhere to the previous course and increased border controls. SPD parliamentary group leader Matthias Miersch commented on the opposite in the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung”: “In my view, there will no longer be able to exist because the dishes will stop.”

The Berlin Administrative Court found in an endurance decision on Monday that the rejection of three Somalier during a border control at Frankfurt (Oder) was ill. Without a clarification as to which EU state is responsible for an asylum application by the person concerned, they should not be rejected. The three Somalians are now in Berlin.

Dobrindt wants clarification by the European Court of Justice

“This is an individual case,” said Dobrindt. The court noted that the reason for the application of Article 72 – an exceptional in European law – was not sufficient. “We will provide a sufficient justification, but the European Court of Justice should decide.” The President of the Berlin Administrative Court Erna Viktoria Xalter said in an interview with “ZEIT ONLINE”: “How is that supposed to go through the ECJ? She assumes that there will also be rejections at other limits, through other federal police departments, which would then be checked by other courts.

Miersch: expected review of previous practice

According to SPD parliamentary group leader Miersch, the decision of the court raises very fundamental questions. The black and red government will have to deal with it. “The Chancellor (Friedrich Merz) also explained this very clearly when he said that against the background of this judicial decision, the practice had to be checked again,” said Miersch. “And I expect that now, because otherwise we will experience that we will lose further procedures in the next few months.”

Dobrindt had had more intensive border controls shortly after the new government started a month ago. At the same time, he ordered that asylum seekers can also be rejected at the border in the future. According to the administrative court decision, Chancellor Merz (CDU) had stated that the rejection of asylum seekers at the border had to be recorded. The decision may have a little bit of the scope again. But you know that you can still reject rejections.

CSU attacks pro asylum: “Trains of a staging”

Meanwhile, serious allegations come from the CSU towards the refugee aid organization Pro Asyl, which the three Somali asylum seekers had supported in their complaint. The case has “almost absurd features” and indicates a “staging”, said the head of the CSU MPs in the Bundestag, Alexander Hoffmann, the “Augsburger Allgemeine”. “Pro asylum has been traveling along the escape routes for years, also at the border crossings. There, refugees are recommended to throw away their ID cards because this is significantly more difficult to deport Germany,” he said.

Hoffmann continued: “A person was of legal age on the first two attempts at entry and is suddenly a minor on the third attempt, she has ID documents that have characteristics of counterfeits.” All three people would have had brand new cell phones with which the travel route could not be traced back. “For me, the clear feature of a staging by asylum activists is wearing.”

Per asylum rejects “false assumptions”

The managing director of Pro Asyl, Karl Kopp, replied in the newspaper that these allegations had nothing to do with the facts. “We are a human rights organization and support refugees in court,” he emphasized. “It was the same in the case of the three people from Somalia, a woman of whom is still a minor.” The fact that people recommend disposing of their ID cards or buying new cell phones are wrong assumptions. “This will attack our work.”