A landmark ruling by Germany’s Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig, on Thursday, April 17th, has cleared the way for the deportation of single, healthy male asylum seekers who arrived in Germany after first being granted refugee status in Greece. The court determined that returning such individuals to the Mediterranean state would not constitute inhumane treatment.
Judge Robert Keller, speaking on the court’s reasoning, said the ruling was guided by whether refugees in Greece had access to the most basic necessities. “Bread, bed, and soap,” he stated, were the core conditions considered.
According to the ruling, “It cannot be expected with any significant probability that able-bodied, healthy and single young male beneficiaries of protection returning to Greece will find themselves in extreme material hardship, preventing them from meeting their most basic needs in terms of accommodation, food, and hygiene.” Liberal human rights groups were protesting the decision, saying conditions in Greece are unbearable for everyone.
The court acknowledged the realities of bureaucratic delays and limited state support but concluded that returnees “can likely find accommodation at least in temporary shelters or emergency accommodations with basic sanitary facilities.”
Speaking to The Telegraph, senior CDU MP Günter Krings explained the reasoning behind the decision. “More than four million asylum seekers and war refugees came to Germany in the last decade; our capacities to integrate so many people into our society are exhausted, our public order and internal security severely affected,” he said.
