EU asylum system: Secondary migration in Germany is increasing

In Germany, the number of refugees who, according to the BAMF, have already been recognized as eligible for protection in Greece, is increasing. This is not actually provided for in EU asylum law.

Most of them are people who are traveling from Greece to Germany to visit their families. The people concerned take advantage of the fact that they can travel within the EU for ninety days as recognized refugees. A phenomenon that has come to a head in recent months, says State Secretary Stephan Mayer. At the beginning of the year there were around 1,000 refugees coming to the Federal Republic from Greece every month, but the number has now more than doubled.

At the EU Interior Ministers’ Conference in Slovenia in July, the State Secretary, as the representative of the Federal Interior Minister, once again demanded that the EU Commission should act on Athens to solve the problem persons recognized as entitled to protection from Greece travel to Germany and then apply for asylum again with us, is no longer acceptable. ”

In any case, they will urge Greece to make more intensive efforts to improve the accommodation options for recognized asylum seekers as well as food and social assistance for recognized persons entitled to protection, Mayer explained.

Returns are as good as impossible

According to a judgment of the European Court of Justice in 2011, asylum seekers do not have to return to an EU member state if they are threatened with inhuman or degrading treatment there. The German jurisprudence sees this as given in Greece.

Therefore, in these cases, returns are virtually impossible, says Lena Dupont. She is the domestic policy spokeswoman for the CDU / CSU group in the European Parliament: “From a German perspective, the effective prevention of secondary migration plays a very important role.” It would help if there were standardized admission criteria at European level.

Dupont went on to say: “In principle, however, one also has to say that in this case it is above all German case law that complicates the situation a bit.” The judgment came at a time when the situation in Greece had already changed and improved significantly in essential parts.

Associations complain about conditions in Greek reception centers

Non-governmental organizations and refugee associations, however, complain that the conditions in the Greek reception centers are still miserable.

In any case, interior experts from France, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Switzerland also assume that the trend towards irregular secondary movements will intensify.