Athens says Germany has agreed not to return asylum cases to Greece

The Greek government said on Tuesday it has secured an agreement with Germany and other EU states under which it will not be required to take back asylum seekers until a reformed European asylum system enters into force.

Under the arrangement, asylum seekers who entered Greece irregularly and then travelled on to a country like Germany before June 12, 2026 will not be returned to Greece, the Greek Ministry of Migration said.

Around 515,000 so-called Dublin cases — more than 100,000 of them from the past four years — will not be transferred from Germany to Greece retroactively, it said.

However, transfers under the EU’s Dublin system are subject to a six-month deadline, starting from the date the receiving country agrees to take responsibility for an individual that has moved on. As a result, many of the asylum seekers cited by Greece have already become Germany’s responsibility and can no longer be returned anyway.

After Monday’s meeting in Brussels, the German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt spoke of an agreement with Greece and Italy, but did not directly address the concessions now mentioned by the Greek side.

“We have agreed with Greece and Italy that they will take back migrants who entered the European Union via their countries,” he told the Bild newspaper.

The Greek side said the country would enter the new European asylum system “with zero return obligations”

The so-called Dublin procedure is part of the common European asylum system.

One of its provisions states that, as a rule, the country in which the refugee first entered EU territory is responsible for processing the asylum application.

This system often failed due to the prescribed deadline and the unwillingness of some EU countries to take back asylum seekers.