By Euro Weekly News Media • Published: 08 Aug 2018 • 14:54
SPAIN has agreed to accept back migrants who landed in the country before making their way to Germany.
Eleonore Petermann, a spokeswoman for the German Ministry of the Interior, revealed an agreement had been reached for the return of migrants who had already registered as refugees in Spain.
The Spanish authorities agreed to the request, asking for nothing in return.
The announcement means that from August 11 any migrants arriving in Germany whose details are on the European Dactyloscopy (Eurodac) fingerprint database as having originally landed in Spain can be returned within 48 hours.
This is the first bilateral agreement Germany has entered which allows the return of refugees to their point of entry into the EU.
German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer wants to sign similar agreements with Italy and Greece.
The pressure is on the German coalition government to bring in anti immigration measures after it saw 1.6 million migrants arrive since the summer of 2014.
Spain has become the main entry point into Europe with 19,000 arrivals in the first half of the year – about the same number that landed in all of 2017.
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