Germany grants asylum to thousands of refugees already protected by Greece

Source: Schengen Visa Info

Germany has granted asylum to thousands of refugees who were previously granted refugee protection in Greece.

The German Ministry of Interior said that almost 50,000 people who were granted protection in Greece have applied for asylum in Germany, SchengenVisaInfo.com reports.

Of the total number of applications that have been made so far, Info Migrants explains that 8,000 of them have been processed. In addition, the same notes that nine in ten applications have reportedly been approved.

According to a recent edition of the newspapers of the Funke Media Group, the figures from the end of May show that 48,756 refugees have re-applied for asylum in Germany after they were granted protection in Greece.

According to the report made by the newspaper, the Federal office for Migration and Refugees of Germany put on hold asylum applications for a few months. Moreover, the same explained that these applications were given a lower priority.

Info Migrants notes that Germany’s Federal Office for Migration and Refugees stopped processing applications from Greece after the country’s courts said that the deportees must not be returned because their basic needs would not be met in Greece.

Taking into account such factors, Federal Office for Migration and Refugees plans to start processing applications made by these people, the German media said late in March.

So far, one in six of around 50,000 applications in Germany have already been decided. According to the Ministry, the majority of these applications were approved even though the applicants already had refugee status in Greece.

The data from the Ministry of Interior of Germany show that the protection rate was 89 percent, which means that almost 7,200 applications were approved. On the other hand, around 41,000 applications were pending.

Even though the current EU permits allow refugees to travel from one EU country to another for a period of up to 90 days, they are not allowed to apply again for asylum in another country. Such a phenomenon is commonly referred to by the authorities as ‘irregular secondary movement’.

Refugees have been leaving Greece due to poor conditions. The UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders, Mary Lawlor, said that the criminalization of humanitarian assistance in Greece is on the rise. Nonetheless, Greek authorities deny the allegations.

Previously, SchengenVisaInfo.com reported that the number of people who immigrated to Germany had surpassed the number of those who emigrated from the country. The number of immigrants in Germany surpassed the 220,000 mark last year.