Refugees Daily - Internal Global Press Review

Berlin (dpa) – Thousands of migrants are suing the German authorities for suspending the time limit to return asylum seekers to the country where they first entered the European Union during the coronavirus crisis.

The so-called Dublin rule stipulates that asylum claims are to be handled by the country where migrants first entered the EU. However asylum seekers can no longer be sent back to the country of first entry once they have spent six months elsewhere.

Germany suspended these transfers in March due to the coronavirus pandemic and only resumed them in mid-June.

The country also suspended the six-month deadline.

This deviated from the EU Commission's legal interpretation, which had made it clear in April that the six-month period after which a country of destination becomes responsible for an asylum application would still apply during the pandemic.

According to ministry information provided after a Green party request and seen by dpa, Germany's migration authority BAMF had informed approximately 21,700 asylum seekers by June 1 that the deadline had been suspended.

Under normal circumstances – had the six-month rule still been in force – the responsibility for some 2,600 cases would have passed to Germany.

In early June, 9,300 lawsuits against the BAMF decision were still pending.

Luise Amtsberg, Green party spokeswoman for refugee policy, sharply criticized the actions of the Interior Ministry.

She said it was "bureaucratic madness" that people must take legal action regarding their own transfers.