Despite uncertainties
Neighboring country welcomes German asylum course
04/10/2025 – 6:00 p.m.Reading time: 2 min.
The future federal government wants to reject asylum seekers at the limits – in consultation with neighboring countries. But what that means is unclear.
Austria welcomes the plans of the German government coalition for a stricter course in asylum policy. Germany lies in a line with Austria, which himself implemented numerous measures against illegal migration, said a spokesman for the Interior Ministry in Vienna. Combating tug crime and abuse of asylum is only possible together.
For the planned rejection of migrants at the German border, the spokesman said: “We welcome that Germany has announced that it will proceed in coordination with neighboring countries. We are confident that the actions of the German authorities will be on the ground of the legal system at the EU internal borders.”
Despite possible legal and practical hurdles, politicians from the CDU and CSU are optimistic that the course of the course they announced will succeed in changing the course in migration policy. The coalition agreement negotiated by the Union and the SPD is a “reliable basis” to further reduce the number of asylum seekers at short notice, said Bayern’s Interior Minister, Joachim Herrmann (CSU).
The CDU/CSU and SPD coalition agreement states: “In coordination with our European neighbors, we will also make rejections at the common limits even in the event of asylum requests.” There will be no new voluntary federal recording programs. There should be no family reunification for people with limited protection status for at least two years.
Herrmann rejects that the reservation of doing this “in coordination” with the neighbors could slow down the plan. On the one hand, every state may decide at its limits who may and who is not. Above all, however, the other EU countries also wanted a reduction in refugee figures. He believes: “There will be no problem at all.”
In the evening after the presentation of the coalition agreement at “RTL”, Merz himself said directly: “We will do this in coordination with our European neighbors. And this vote is ongoing.” He did not want to say whether this means that all asylum seekers will be rejected at the limits in the future.
“Switzerland reserves the right to react accordingly, from our point of view, the rejection should violate the applicable law,” said a spokesman for the Swiss Federal Office for Migration on request. It is expected that general passenger and goods traffic will continue to remain as unaffected as possible. The speaker referred to the “bilateral return agreement between Germany and Switzerland, Dublin law and the Geneva Refugee Convention”.
The Czech Interior Minister Vit Rakusan had already been open to the common border at the beginning of March for far -reaching communication with Germany. At the same time, he warned of a possible domino effect of the border controls in the Schengen area.
Last year, 229,751 people made an asylum application for the first time in Germany. That was around 100,000 asylum applications less than in the previous year.
