If you’re an American, British, French, or Swiss tourist who wants to take in some of the sights in Germany, you’ll have to wait a while before you can go because of the coronavirus (COVID-19) epidemic. But if you’re a migrant from Asia, the Middle East, or Africa who has entered Europe illegally? No problem!
Last week, Germany closed its land borders to all foreign citizens except for those providing essential services coming from France, Luxembourg, and Switzerland in an effort to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
However, the German Ministry of the Interior has confirmed that “asylum-seekers” are still welcome in Germany in spite of the ban, according to a report by Junge Freiheit.
In practice, this means that if a migrant were to illegally enter the European Union’s Schengen Zone via Italy or Greece and make it to France or Switzerland, he can still demand asylum in Germany, and thus must be allowed to traverse these countries so that he can formally request it on German territory.
“At Germany’s EU external borders [airports and seaports], there has been no change in the [asylum] procedure,” a representative of the Ministry of the Interior told Junge Freiheit. When asked if this also applies to Germany’s internal Schengen borders, she confirmed that this was also the case there.