German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt has announced his intention to continue his policy of rejecting asylum seekers at the border, despite a recent court ruling to the contrary. The Berlin Administrative Court’s decision, which declared the practice of turning back asylum seekers at the border to be illegal, has been met with criticism from opposition leaders.
Jan van Aken, the leader of the Left Party, has condemned the government’s actions, stating that they are “violating the law, only because they need scapegoats.” He has also accused the government of using a “diversionary tactic” to distract from its own failures, such as a lack of affordable housing and a lack of investment in the economy.
Lars Castellucci, a Social Democratic Party expert on interior policy, has criticized the government’s approach, saying that it has chosen a “less legal path” in its asylum policy. He has also emphasized the need for close cooperation with neighboring countries to effectively control irregular migration and has suggested that a more effective approach would be to expedite the Dublin procedure, a process used to determine the responsible state for handling an asylum application.