UN refugee body warns Germany over stricter border controls

The UN’s refugee agency, UNHCR, has expressed concern over Germany’s decision to tighten border controls and reject asylum seekers at the country’s borders.

UNHCR’s representative in Germany, Katharina Thote, told dpa that the agency was worried about the government’s move to stop accepting asylum applications at the border.

She noted that Germany has been a key partner for UNHCR for decades and remains an important country of asylum in Europe.

Stricter border controls were introduced on the orders of newly appointed Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt last Wednesday, with exemptions applying to vulnerable groups, including heavily pregnant women, women with young children and seriously ill individuals.

The measures after Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s conservative-led government took office, pledging to maintain temporary border checks already in place and to turn back illegal migrants at the border, even if they apply for asylum.

Thote said international law does not force refugees to apply for asylum in the first country they arrive in. In some cases, they can be sent to other safe countries — provided their rights are protected and it helps share responsibility fairly between nations, she added.

However, closing the country’s borders to all asylum seekers could undermine the principle of fair distribution, she warned and called on Germany to uphold existing EU agreements on managing asylum claims.

Border rejections of people without valid visas are not new in Germany. However, until now, these measures mainly applied to people who did not apply for asylum or had been previously banned from entering the country, for example after deportation.

A spokesman for Germany’s Interior Ministry said it was too soon to assess the full impact of the policy. Since January, 45,681 people have applied for asylum in Germany for the first time — down from 84,984 in the same period last year, marking a 46% decrease.