BERLIN: Germany has quietly stopped enforcing European Union rules under which Syrians fleeing the civil war face deportation, it has emerged, as thousands of migrants continued to pour through the Balkans towards Western Europe on Monday.
The move came as Chancellor Angela Merkel and her counterpart Francois Hollande called for an overhaul of the EU’s asylum system, following emergency talks on the migrant crisis in Berlin.
An official source confirmed reports Germany has suspended deporting asylum-seekers from Syria under the EU’s controversial Dublin Regulation.
Under the rule, migrants can only apply for asylum in the first EU member state they enter, and face deportation if they try to apply in another.
But Germany, which has long complained that the Dublin system is failing, has now ordered its officers to process applications from Syrians even if they have made their way through other EU countries.
