European countries are expected to immediately resume the repatriation of third country asylum seekers back to Greece, in case the latter is the first EU country they entered, according to the “Guardian” on Friday.
If the report pans out, the development means a resumption of the Dublin II regime, whereby authorities will examine a third country national’s asylum request in the first EU country they entered, legally or not.
Guardian said Germany has already returned some 400 asylum seekers back to Greece, with France, the UK, the Netherlands and Norway also requesting the return of asylum seekers to the east Mediterranean country.
A massive influx of third country nationals, mostly Mideast war refugees in the beginning, landing on a handful of Greece’s eastern Aegean islands began in 2015, four years after the Syrian civil war began. The influx of Syrians and Iraqis was quickly joined by people from a variety of third world countries, all attempting to reach preferred west European destinations as undocumented migrants.
“The bureaucratic process has begun and we expect returns (of asylum seekers) next month,” relevant migration policy Yannis Mouzalas was quoted by “Guardian” as saying.
