German Border Police Barred From Rejecting Asylum Seekers Arriving From E.U. Nations Without Review

The German border police can no longer reject asylum seekers who arrive from neighboring European Union countries without investigating their claims, a Berlin court ruled on Monday, dealing a blow to Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s attempts to control such migration.

The ruling came in response to a legal complaint filed by three Somali refugees who were sent back to Poland shortly after the German police barred them from entering at the eastern border last month, following new directives from the government.

Days after Mr. Merz was sworn in as chancellor, Alexander Dobrindt, his interior minister, ordered the border police to send back some asylum seekers who arrive at the border from other European Union countries. The new rule was an attempt to deliver on Mr. Merz’s campaign promise to reduce the number of asylum seekers entering Germany.

It remained unclear to what degree the ruling on Monday would stymie plans to limit the number of arrivals; the government is also suspending a program that lets asylum seekers sponsor their families.

On Monday night, Mr. Dobrindt said that he did not believe that the court’s ruling covered the practice in general and applied only to the one case. And he promised to continue his policies at the border.

“We stand by our legal opinion and do not consider it to have been undermined in this instance,” he told reporters.