German government announcement to lift block on deportations to Greece just a public relations exercise

14th January 2017 Newsroom Refugee Crisis 0

DW — The German government in an attempt to regain some of its declining popularity over its immigration policy  announced that it is planning to lift a block on asylum-seeker transfers to Greece that has been in place in 2011, despite a “dire” humanitarian situation in the  country’s refugee camps.

Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere has asked the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) to lift the block on deportations to Greece as of March 15 in an effort to rebuild the European Union’s “Dublin system” for distributing asylum applicants.

The measure would follow an official European Commission recommendation from December 8, which concluded that “Greece has made significant progress in putting in place the essential institutional and legal structures for a properly functioning asylum system.”

However, the measure  would only apply to migrants leaving Greece after March 15, 2017, the European Commission, the EU executive said at the time, affecting  relatively small numbers of migrants who by that time were prevented from travelling to Germany through the Balkan route.  According to the EU recommendation, the change would not affect unaccompanied minors and vulnerable groups of migrants.

Italy and Greece are by far the main entry points for migrants from outside the EU. Under the Dublin accord, countries are obligated to process asylum requests for all who enter the EU through their territory. If the asylum seeker later leaves the “country of first entry” and travels to other EU states, the first country is obligated to take them back.

But  only people who arrive in Germany after March 15 2017 will be affected, and  Greece will be required to guarantee that each returnee will be given a place in a refugee shelter.

The move, announced  just days after the United Nations reported a “dire situation” in Greece’s refugee camps, has triggered outrage among human rights organisations, and any returns to Greece are likely to be challenged at German courts.

Germany’s refugee organizations were  horrified at the Interior Ministry’s proposal. “Even having this idea is completely unacceptable,” Karl Kopp, Europe consultant for the Pro Asyl organization, told DW. “We think it’s absurd to propagate something like this in the context of the disaster in Greece.”

The EU Commission seems convinced that transfers back to Greece can now gradually resume, but Kopp is outraged. “It’s an emergency situation,” he said. “We need a comprehensive protection system in Greece and a fair distribution in Europe. We will go to the highest European court to clear these questions up.”