"We are adhering to court guidelines": Chancellery wants to tighten up on migration turnaround

The negative ruling on border rejections will prompt the federal government to make greater efforts to justify its legal position. Chancellor Frei emphasizes that the migration turnaround is coming. In doing so, the legal requirements will be observed.

In the dispute over the rejection of asylum seekers, Chancellor's Office Minister Thorsten Frei has rejected the accusation of disrespecting court rulings. "There was a decision in the first instance in an expedited procedure that did not go in our favor," the CDU politician told the Funke Media Group newspapers. "We need to take a close look at this and possibly provide a more substantiated justification."

Frei announced: "Should we actually not be able to prevail in this case, this legal issue would have to be clarified in a much more fundamental way in the next instance. It is perfectly clear that we respect all court decisions. So if a court says there is something lacking, we will take corrective action at precisely that point."

The head of the Chancellery expressed little surprise at the Berlin Administrative Court's emergency decision: "Such a decision was not beyond anyone's imagination, because we are operating in a difficult legal area." At the same time, he emphasized: "The migration turnaround is coming."

Border controls necessary: ​​"That is regrettable"

Frei made it clear that border controls should be "as short as possible." "It doesn't fill us with joy to control internal borders. We do this because, to date, we have not succeeded in protecting Europe's external borders to such an extent that we could justify the complete abolition of internal border controls," he said. "That is regrettable."

The head of the Chancellery emphasized: "We are committed to ensuring that we achieve effective protection of Europe's external borders – and that we can once again experience unrestricted European freedom of movement within the Schengen area."

When asked whether all national measures would be lifted if the European asylum reform took effect, he said: "In case of doubt, there will always have to be national regulations. But we will only solve the challenges of migration on a European scale."