German and Austrian refugee organizations informed on Tuesday about suspected illegal rejection of migrants at the German-Austrian border. “Dozens of Syrian war survivors report formalized pushbacks by German officials in the border area with Austria,” the NGOs said in a joint press release. The German Federal Police rejected the accusation.
“Those affected have been stranded in Austria for weeks, although they had previously asked for international protection in Germany,” said the broadcast by Pushback Alarm Austria, Border Violence Monitoring Network and the Bavarian Refugee Council. “Despite clear national and international regulations that prohibit this, those affected were handed over to the Austrian police just a few hours after their arrival in Bavaria, or simply abandoned on the street in Salzburg.” It’s not about individual cases, “but about one Systematic practice”. Those affected report threats of punishment. Specifically, the NGOs referred to statements from a total of six incidents that were documented in detail from November and December 2022. According to them, the descriptions come from Syrians seeking protection who were involved in police checks in Freilassing, Passau and Munich had been picked up. Those affected report that they had articulated to German officials several times and also in the presence of an interpreter that they wanted to apply for asylum in Germany. “Nevertheless, without the initiation of a regular asylum procedure, they were usually transported back to Austria the following day,” it said. Ahmad, a young father from Syria who had refused military service under the Assad regime, was quoted as saying: “I was I was stunned when the officials in Freilassing told me that I would be fined and even jailed if I tried to enter Germany again.” Police: “Legal practice” The Salzburg police had not yet made a statement. The Federal Police Headquarters in Munich referred to the legal practice. “If a request for protection is made to the Federal Police, the person will be processed in accordance with the Asylum Act and then forwarded to the responsible initial reception center. The examination of the request for protection is the sole responsibility of the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF),” said a spokesman on request. Families would not be separated, but would be processed more quickly, just like unaccompanied minors, in order to keep the length of stay in the offices as short as possible. “During the border police processing, attention is paid in each individual case to whether it can be inferred from the will of the person expressed in writing, verbally or in some other way that they are seeking protection from political persecution or international protection in Germany,” said the police spokesman. Certain words such as B. Asylum is not necessary, but not sufficient on its own. In case of doubt, an application for asylum should be assumed. The NGOs also referred to a strong increase in rejections with a simultaneous decrease in the number of asylum applications according to German police statistics. According to this, 22,824 unauthorized entries were registered in Germany at the border with Austria last year, with asylum applications being received in twelve percent of the cases. In November and December 2022, only 0.6 percent of the people who crossed the German-Austrian border were able to apply for asylum: in numbers, there were 20 asylum applications in November 2022 and twelve asylum applications in December 2022, with 3,077 and 2,107 people being apprehended “How can it be that thousands of people from the main countries of origin make it to the German border and then, allegedly without applying for asylum, are pushed back?” asked Katharina Grote from the Bavarian Refugee Council. “Also due to the high number of police evictions and the strikingly small number of asylum applications received, we have to assume that some of the rejections are not legal.” The NGOs called for the allegations to be clarified immediately.
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