It is a judicial decision, which is expected to give a new impetus to refugees from Germany to Greece or at least to more urgently restore the German request.

The Federal Administrative Court of Germany based in Leipzig (equivalent to the Council of State in Greece) has ruled that two refugees who had come to Germany through Greece could be deported by the German authorities under the Dublin regulation, while there is no legal impediment to Greece. In other words, judges reject the argument that there is a risk of degrading or inhumane treatment for refugees residing in Greece.

Specifically: The two men, a 32 -year -old from Somalia and a 34 -year -old from the Gaza Strip with unclear nationality, had come to Greece via Turkey in 2018 and 2017 respectively. Both were recognized as beneficiaries of international protection, so they received a residence permit for Greece. However, they were then found in Germany and re -submitted an application for asylum, which was rejected by the competent authority, namely the Federal Migration and Refugee Service (BAMF), while deciding that the two men should be deported to Greece.

The “Dublin” and the exceptions of

Obviously the competent authority has kept the Dublin regulation, which can provoke strong political reactions in recent years but is still considered legal in force. Dublin stipulates that the first country is responsible for the granting of asylum or at least for the processing of the relevant application. In this case- as in many other cases for reasonable geographical reasons- Greece was Greece.

But wanting to avoid their impending expulsion, the two men appealed to German justice, arguing that there is a risk of violating their fundamental rights due to living conditions in Greece. The truth is that in the past many German courts had justified refugees in similar cases, accepting the argument that inhumane conditions are prevalent in Greece, within or outside the refugee camps. Indicatively, the ruling of the Supreme Administrative Court in the Syria Federal State in November 2022, which had justified five refugees from Syria, considering that in Greece “there is a serious chance that they will not be able to meet their most basic needs”.

Does the case law change in Germany?

But it seems that things are changing. In its current verdict, the Federal Administrative Court ruled that there is no “valuable chance” of finding the two men after being dismissed in an “extreme state of emergency”, which will not allow them to meet basic needs and residence, State benefits. The same view had expressed in the previous degree of jurisdiction by the Higher Administrative Court of Hesse.

Humanitarian organizations in Germany, such as Pro Asyl, point out that they have a “completely different picture” of the prevailing conditions in Greece. However, the verdict of the Supreme German Administrative Court is expected to rekindle the debate on the so -called “secondary immigration”, which has previously caused friction between Greece and Germany.