Entry via safe third countries

The so-called Dublin procedure ensures that only one country examines your asylum application and determines which one it is. The EU country in which you were first registered as a refugee is responsible for your asylum application. This also applies to Norway, Iceland, Switzerland and Liechtenstein.

If necessary, Germany will submit a takeover request to the country concerned.

You will be notified if the country concerned assumes responsibility for your asylum application. The REAG/GARP program (Reintegration and Emigration Programme for Asylum Seekers in Germany/Government Assisted Repatriation Programme), which provides financial support for your return, is not available to you in this case.

You can file an urgent application against the decision on jurisdiction so that you can remain at your current place of residence until the court has made a decision. If the court decides that Germany is not responsible, you must leave the country responsible immediately.

Germany is only responsible for your asylum application if the two countries do not agree on a timely transfer.

Refugees can sometimes be turned back at the German border because they entered via a safe third country.

There are exceptions if Germany makes use of its right of self-entry for certain groups of refugees, i.e. it conducts the asylum procedure at its own discretion.

If you have already submitted an asylum application in one of the safe third countries which was rejected, you can only submit a second application in Germany if Germany is responsible for your asylum application and there are reasons to reopen the procedure.

Only in this case will you go through the asylum procedure in Germany as if it were your first application.