4 Returns in Four Months: Germany's GEAS Asylum System Yields Near-Zero Results
October 25, 2026 · Frisian News
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
Since the Common European Asylum System launched in June 2026, Germany has completed just four returns to Italy and Greece, against hundreds of cases where BAMF determined those countries were responsible. Interior Ministry data show the EU's flagship asylum mechanism running at near-zero capacity.
Four. That is the number of asylum seekers Germany has returned to Italy and Greece since the Common European Asylum System took effect in June 2026. Two to each country. German Interior Ministry data, obtained by Welt am Sonntag through a parliamentary question from AfD MP Sebastian Münzenmaier, show that against those four completed transfers, BAMF, the federal migration authority, had logged hundreds of cases in which it formally determined that Italy or Greece bore responsibility for the applicant.
The ministry did not volunteer the figures. According to the AfD, officials released the numbers only after several follow-up requests. Münzenmaier called the outcome a joke. He told Welt am Sonntag that GEAS was turning into a "total flop" for Germany.
The system was designed to do the opposite. GEAS was meant to tighten entry rules and create a reliable mechanism for returning asylum seekers to the EU country that first received them. Germany wants to use the mechanism to send more cases back to Italy and Greece. In practice, those two countries continue to block nearly all returns, just as they did before the reform.
Italy's position was clear as early as July 2026, barely a month after GEAS launched. Reports then confirmed that Rome had not changed its approach under the new rules. The Italian government's counter-argument, as reported by Bild, is that German NGOs are still ferrying migrants ashore and adding to the pressure Italy faces. CDU politician Detlef Seif, who handles European asylum and migration questions for the parliamentary group, said he had "much understanding" for that position, while still calling for Berlin to open infringement proceedings if Rome kept refusing. Before that step, further talks between Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt and his Italian counterpart Matteo Piantedosi were the next step.
Dobrindt's ministry has not explained publicly why transfers are failing at this scale, nor has it stated how the government plans to lift returns to a level consistent with what GEAS promised. Both questions were put to the ministry, according to Welt am Sonntag. Both went unanswered.
The broader numbers put the GEAS result in context. Interior Ministry data reported by Bild show that from January to September 2026 Germany returned 37,105 people in total: 14,140 forced deportations and 22,781 voluntary departures subsidised by federal and state governments. Chancellor Friedrich Merz had placed migration at the centre of his government's agenda. The GEAS returns to the two largest Mediterranean arrival countries amount to one per month.
The structural tension is baked into the reform itself. GEAS asks Italy and Greece to accept formal responsibility for people who crossed their borders, while also promising to relieve pressure on them as front-line states. Germany wants to use the system to deport outward. Bild described this as a classic conflict of goals.
Four returns in four months, against hundreds of pending cases.
Published October 25, 2026 · Frisian News