Six months after the launch of so-called Dublin Centers in Hamburg and Brandenburg, the number of returned migrants to the EU countries responsible for their cases remains limited. Between March and the end of August, only five individuals were transferred from the Eisenhüttenstadt facility in Brandenburg back to Poland, according to the state’s interior ministry. A total of 72 people have been accommodated at the site, resulting in approximately one transfer for every fourteen individuals.
In Hamburg, 75 unaccompanied male migrants were housed in the Dublin Center during the same period. Authorities state that 38 of these individuals have been returned to the country of initial entry.
Officials in Brandenburg attribute the low transfer numbers to increased border controls and, since April, the practice of turning away individuals at the border who are flagged in the Eurodac database. A ministry spokesperson also cited reserved judicial assessments regarding benefit reductions and limited legal avenues to prevent those obligated to leave the country from going into hiding as contributing factors.
More than half of the successful returns in Hamburg (20 out of 38) occurred after migrants were placed in “transfer detention”. A spokesperson for the Hamburg interior authority stated that the sole justification for detention in all cases was the risk of absconding. An additional 14 individuals have been removed from the records of the Hamburg facility due to prolonged absence.
The Alternative for Germany (AfD) party points to the six-month timeframe within the Dublin system as a core issue. Gottfried Curio, an AfD interior policy spokesperson, argues that this encourages asylum seekers to travel onward to Germany and initial countries of entry to shift responsibility for asylum procedures onto Germany by delaying transfer until the deadline passes. He advocates for the complete abolition of the transfer of responsibility principle, characterizing the Dublin Centers as merely a temporary fix.
The Left party calls for a new distribution system. Clara Bünger, the party’s domestic policy spokesperson in the Bundestag, asserts that the initial results from the Dublin Centers in Brandenburg and Hamburg demonstrate the ineffectiveness of policies focused on containment and deterrence. She urges the federal government to advocate for a fair and solidary distribution system and the protection of human rights across Europe, denouncing adherence to the Dublin system as a political and moral failure.
Representatives of the CDU/CSU, SPD and Green parties did not respond to inquiries for comment.
