Germany is preparing to reopen a contentious chapter in Europe’s migration debate, with Berlin signalling that asylum seekers could once again be transferred to Greece

under the European Union’s new migration and asylum framework.

The prospect comes only months after Athens said it had effectively drawn a line under outstanding transfer obligations inherited from the previous system. The development is likely to revive long-running arguments over which EU countries should take responsibility for asylum seekers who move between member states.

The issue is already causing friction between Germany and Italy, where Rome has resisted some attempts by Berlin to return asylum seekers to the country considered responsible for examining their claims.

Germany, meanwhile, has adopted a markedly tougher stance on so-called secondary migration and appears determined to make the new EU system a more effective mechanism for returning asylum seekers to the member state responsible for their applications.

The EU’s Pact on Migration and Asylum entered into application on June 12, replacing key elements of the previous Dublin framework and introducing new rules for allocating responsibility between member states.

Athens believed it had secured a “clean slate”

For Greece, the potential return of transfers under the new system is particularly sensitive.

In March, the Greek government announced agreements with Germany and other European countries that it said would settle outstanding obligations relating to cases accumulated under the previous migration arrangements.

Government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis described the agreements as creating a “clean slate” for Greece once the new European rules came into force.

The announcement was politically important for Athens. Greece has spent years arguing that its position on the EU’s external frontier has left it carrying a disproportionate share of the bloc’s migration burden.

The new pact, however, changes the legal landscape.

While Greece may no longer be expected to deal with a backlog of older cases under the previous system, it remains potentially responsible for asylum seekers transferred under the new rules.

In other words, the old cases may have been closed — but a new stream of transfers could now begin under a different legal framework.

Berlin takes a harder line on secondary migration

Germany has increasingly focused on preventing asylum seekers from moving from one EU country to another after initially entering the bloc elsewhere.

Under the former Dublin arrangements, Berlin submitted substantial numbers of responsibility-transfer requests to both Greece and Italy. According to data cited by the Asylum Information Database, Greece was the main destination for Germany’s outgoing Dublin requests in 2025, followed by Italy.

The question has become particularly contentious in Italy, where the government in Rome has challenged efforts to accept asylum seekers sent back from Germany, including cases connected to arrivals and procedures dating from before the new pact took effect.

German officials, however, have signalled that Berlin expects the new rules to provide a legal basis for renewed transfers.

That could place responsibility-sharing firmly back at the centre of the EU’s migration debate, particularly as governments face growing domestic pressure to demonstrate that asylum rules are being enforced.

Greece prepares for the new system

The European Commission has indicated that Greece is strengthening the structures needed to deal with transfers under the new Asylum and Migration Management Regulation.

Athens has reinforced its National Dublin Unit, which is being prepared to process incoming transfer requests under the new framework.

The Commission has also indicated that, in principle, transfers to Greece should follow procedures comparable to those applying elsewhere in the European Union.

That does not, however, amount to confirmation that Germany is about to launch a large-scale programme of returns to Greece.

There is currently no reliable figure for how many asylum seekers Berlin might seek to transfer to Greece. Nor has a firm timetable been established for such transfers.

What has changed is the legal and political environment.

Germany’s increasingly assertive approach to secondary migration, combined with the implementation of the EU’s new migration pact, means that the question is no longer simply about resolving the unfinished business of the old Dublin system.

For Greece, the next challenge will be determining how many asylum seekers could be returned under the new rules — and whether the EU’s redesigned migration framework can deliver the more balanced sharing of responsibility that member states have promised for years.

For Berlin, the test will be whether the new system can turn that promise into an enforceable reality without reopening the divisions that have repeatedly paralysed Europe’s migration policy. Photo by Mstyslav Chernov, Wikimedia commons.