Overview

• Since May federal police have intensified border checks and increasingly turned away protection seekers at crossings.
• In June the Berlin Administrative Court ruled that the pushback of three Somali applicants at Frankfurt (Oder) was unlawful.
• The German Institute for Human Rights concluded that blanket rejections at the border breach EU law and international human rights obligations.
• Angela Merkel publicly insisted that anyone seeking asylum at the German border must at minimum receive a formal procedural review.
• Federal authorities cite the Dublin Regulation to justify rejections of those who first applied for asylum in another EU country.