About one year after the entry into force of an agreement between Germany and Spain to take back asylum seekers already registered there, the southern European country only withdrew two persons from Germany. This was announced by the Ministry of the Interior in dpa Berlin. On the basis of a similar agreement with Greece, 29 people were sent back.
August 2018 came into force
The data reflects the status of 5 August. The agreement with Spain came into force on 11 August 2018, those with Greece on 18 August. Accordingly, people stopped at the German-Austrian border can be sent back to these countries if they were already registered there. On average, not even one person per week had to leave Germany on the basis of these two agreements.
Since there are only punctual controls at the German-Austrian border, critics had expected from the outset that in particular persons who were registered first in Spain will hardly be affected by the new regulation. People coming from Spain would have to choose the route through France, Italy and Austria in order to reach the German-Austrian border – instead of entering France via France.
Ministry of the Interior sees „mosaic stone“
Accordingly, the agreements were more of symbolic significance. The German Interior Ministry said that the agreements were „just a piece of the mosaic“ of the government’s measures „to control, organize and limit migration“.
The agreements with Spain and Greece were also made in the light of the previous bitter asylum dispute of the Union parties last summer. The German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer (CSU) had insisted on a rejection of asylum seekers on the German border, Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) wanted a European solution and then scored at an EU summit in June 2018, a number of agreements, but not yet have been implemented.
