Germany - June 2025

On 2 June, the Berlin Administrative Court ruled that denying entry to asylum seekers during border checks is illegal and violates both German law and the EU’s Dublin Regulation on immigration. While the Dublin system makes the first EU country of entry (in this case Poland) generally responsible for processing claims, Germany must still allow applications to be lodged and then use the Dublin procedure to transfer responsibility. The Court found that pushbacks at the border bypass these safeguards. The ruling, which is final and cannot be appealed, arose from the case of three Somali nationals who were sent back to Poland in May under a new policy. This policy, introduced as part of the government's efforts to curb irregular migration, instructed police to reject irregular migrants at the border even if they requested asylum. The Court concluded that this approach bypasses crucial legal safeguards and infringes on the fundamental right to seek asylum. 

Sources: Deutsche Welle, Euronews