06/07/2025June 7, 2025
Lawmaker slams activists over border incident tied to court ruling
A center-right German politician has accused asylum activists of “staging” an incident where three Somali asylum seekers were turned away at the border.
The decision led a court in Berlin on Monday to declare Germany’s new pushback policy illegal, as it was not handled under the EU’s Dublin Regulation.
Alexander Hoffmann, the new head of the (CSU) parliamentary group in the Bundestag, lower house of parliament, singled out the group Pro Asyl, accusing them of helping the trio to circumvent immigration rules.
The CSU is the Bavarian sister party of Chancellor conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party.
Hoffmann told the Augsburger Allgemeine that the incident on May 9 bore “almost absurd traits.”
He alleged that the Somalis had received support from Pro Asyl even before they tried to enter the country, which the group strongly rejected.
“Pro Asyl has been traveling along the refugee routes for years, including at the border crossings. Refugees are advised to throw away their ID cards because this makes deportation from Germany much more difficult,” Hoffmann said
He added that one of the Somalis was “of legal age” during their first two attempts to enter Germany, but then identified as a minor on the third attempt, and had carried forged identity documents.
All three had new cell phones that could not be used to trace their route of travel to Germany.
“For me, this has clear traits of a staging by asylum activists,” Hoffmann told the newspaper.
Although the trio were returned to Poland, they were later allowed to enter Germany following the court ruling.
Pro Asyl Managing Director Karl Kopp denied Hoffmann’s allegations and criticized the turnbacks under Merz’s government as violating European law.
The post Germany: Car drives into crowd in Passau appeared first on Deutsche Welle.
