From Monday (16.09.2024), Germany will be checking all borders to find unwanted migrants and asylum seekers. This is part of the “biggest U-turn” in asylum policy, as Chancellor Olaf Scholz repeated in the Bundestag on Wednesday (11.09.2024). However, there will be no direct returns of asylum seekers to Austria, Poland or France. This was demanded by the largest opposition faction, the CDU/CSU. According to Interior Minister Nancy Faeser, such direct returns would violate the applicable asylum law and the so-called Dublin Regulation in the European Union.
Orban's policy encourages Scholz
Chancellor Scholz was praised for the resumption of border controls on all German land borders by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who has been trying to stop all migration from outside the EU to Hungary for years. Orban wrote to Scholz on X: “Welcome to the club!”, adding the hashtag “StopMigration”.
Hungary violates EU law
When it comes to asylum policy, Orban is the only member of the EU's “Stop Migration” club. Hungary has been systematically and systematically violating EU law for years. The Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) has confirmed this several times since 2015. In June, the court imposed a fine of €200 million on the Budapest government because Viktor Orban refused to comply with last year's ruling. The CJEU ordered Hungary to change its practice of accepting asylum applications only at Hungarian embassies in Serbia or Ukraine. According to EU law, asylum seekers must be able to apply directly at the border.
Viktor Orban does not accept the Luxembourg ruling and refuses to pay the fine. That is why the European Commission will probably start reducing Hungary's payments from the EU budget from next week. According to the ECJ ruling, the fine amounts to one million euros per day.
Orban insists on making independent decisions
Viktor Orban stressed during a debate in Italy last week that an EU member like Hungary can decide on its own immigration and asylum policy. Orban rejected the hodgepodge of different civilizations. “Some issues should not be decided in Brussels. Who can define whether a country should live with migrants or not?” Orban said in Cernobbio, Italy.
“The decision on this matter must be taken by the people and elected leaders, not by an imperialist centre of forced integration,” said Viktor Orban, who is also currently the president of the EU Council. But Europe’s longest-serving head of government, whose country has significant rule-of-law shortcomings, ignores the fact that asylum policy is subject only to European law, not national law.
Hungary has sealed its border with Serbia, which is also the EU's external border, with a fence and barbed wire. At one point, Hungarian authorities set up transit zones right on the border, in a “no man's land” where asylum seekers were partially held for months while the asylum procedure was ongoing.
The European Court of Justice also found this practice illegal and put an end to it. However, Viktor Orban achieved his goal. Last year, Hungary granted asylum to exactly five people. There are currently 15 asylum cases pending.
A clear trend: reduced arrivals
The number of people arriving in Hungary seeking asylum is therefore dramatically low. Chancellor Olaf Scholz would also like to see a significant reduction in this number in his own country. In May 2024, 365,000 asylum procedures were being processed in Germany.
– We must be able to choose who comes to Germany. I say that quite clearly here. That is why it is also important that we manage illegal migration, that we reduce the number of those who come to Germany illegally. And send back those who cannot stay, said Olaf Scholz on Wednesday (11.09.2024) in the Bundestag.
There is a clear trend towards the Hungarian position of achieving more control and fewer entries.
Shift to external borders
At European level, member states (including Hungary) have adopted a “migration pact” which, according to EU Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson, aims to reduce arrivals and increase returns and deportations. Asylum procedures are to be accelerated and, where possible, moved to the EU's external borders in closed reception centres, similar to Hungary's transit zones.
However, the fundamental right to asylum is to be preserved. Overburdened first-contact countries such as Greece and Italy will be able to transfer asylum seekers to other EU countries. Since this situation would require solidarity in accepting those in need of protection, Hungary ultimately rejects the migration pact and refuses to implement it legally. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban certainly does not want to be part of this EU “club”. What's more, he is threatening that the few asylum seekers and refugees who still make it to Hungary will be bused to Brussels and dropped off at EU institutions there. On Tuesday, the European Commission strongly rejected this threat as a violation of all principles.
Meanwhile, Germany's introduction of new border controls has drawn criticism from other EU politicians, with Prime Minister Donald Tusk calling the potential return of migrants to Poland “unacceptable”.
However, they are legally possible if the rejected person has not applied for asylum in Germany and does not have a valid visa. Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer has announced that, if necessary, his country will also issue negative decisions. He says that the German interpretation of asylum law is “arbitrary”.