Berlin, 17 February 2020.

Deputy Federal Spokeswoman Beatrix von Storch has welcomed the ruling of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) that Spain is granted the right to return asylum seekers directly to a non-EU country. On the basis of that judgment, Germany could re-deport or reject illegal migrants at the border: "The ECtHR ruling allows Spain to directly return asylum seekers to a non-EU country. If a rejection at the Spanish EU border by the European Court of Human Rights is considered legal, this must apply all the more to rejections at the German border. In the event of rejection at the German border, those rejected are still given the opportunity to apply for asylum in another EU country. I call for the ECtHR ruling to be used as an opportunity to re-apply fully the third-country rule of the Basic Law at The German borders. Germany is surrounded by safe third countries. Those who cross the German border obviously come to the Federal Republic from a safe third country and thus have no right to asylum with us. Since the ECtHR ruling obviously allows illegal migrants to be repatriated at the border, Germany should immediately start rejecting them at the German border," says von Storch. The ruling of the European Court of Human Rights on so-called 'push-backs', i.e. collective expulsions of illegally entered migrants into the EU, does not see Spain's failure to immediately repatriate these intruders. Following a unanimous decision of the Grand Chamber of the ECtHR, Spain did not violate the prohibition of collective expulsion under Article 4 of the Fourth Additional Protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) by providing security forces with two migrants to Morocco. immediately after they had crossed the border fence with the Spanish exclave of Melilla. Reason: The two men had put themselves in an illegal situation by forcibly overcoming the fence together with many other people. They deliberately did not enter by legal means. The direct refusal without an individual decision on expulsion is thus the result of its own unlawful conduct. The contribution Beatrix von Storch: According to the ruling of the ECtHR, illegal migrants can be deported immediately appeared first on Alternative for Germany.