Berlin is Eligible to Deport Refugees to Poor EU Countries - ECJ

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) announced Tuesday that Berlin can deport asylum-seekers to other EU member states, stressing that poor living conditions in those countries aren’t a reason to block deportations.

Judges stated that exceptions apply only in extreme cases when a migrant is deprived of "feeding, washing and finding shelter". In addition, the ECJ ruled that claims could be rejected if the applicant already receives subsidiary protection in another country in the bloc.

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According to Sueddeutsche Zeitung, from January to the end of November 2018, Germany deported 8,658 asylum seekers to other EU countries, which is more than the previous year’s record of 7,102 deportees.

Over the same period of time, the German migration office requested that other EU states take in 51,558 refugees who had arrived in Germany, while 35,375 pleas were approved. Thus, the share of deported refugees has risen sharply to 24.5 percent from 15.1 in 2017.