A German high court has ruled that single, healthy male asylum seekers who have traveled to Germany via Greece can be deported back to the Mediterranean country.
The Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig ruled that asylum seekers who meet the criteria can face a lack of state support in Greece because they will not face inhumane treatment in the country.
Robert Keller, one of the judges, said the decision was ultimately based on whether refugees in Greece had access to "bread, bedding and soap." He said: "That's not much, we know that."
Fredrich Merz's incoming coalition, made up of his Christian Democrats (CDU) and the center-left Social Democrats, has pledged to massively remove asylum seekers from Germany's borders, claiming that public services are "overburdened."
The decision means that asylum seekers who entered the European Union through Greece and were granted asylum, but then continued on to Germany and filed a new application, risk being turned back by German authorities.
Under the Dublin Agreement, asylum seekers must have their claims processed in the first EU country they enter, but these rules are rarely enforced.