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, the German outlet Sueddeutsche Zeitung reports. The newspaper cites the country’s Interior Ministry’s response to a corresponding request from lawmaker Ulla Jelpke, representing the left-wing party Die Linke, Sputnik reported.
According to the report, in 2018 every third asylum case of the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) fell under Dublin Regulation, which is intended to determine which member state is responsible for an asylum claim. The EU's Dublin III Regulation stipulates that the country registering a migrant upon his or her arrival in Europe is the one that should process the corresponding asylum application.
In the first 11 months of 2018, 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.
The spike is viewed as a sign that the Dublin Regulation, which allows for refugees to be sent back to the country where they first entered the continent, is being put into practice more efficiently, although it remains an irritant for migrant entry points like Hungary, Greece, and Italy.