Pro-Asyl – Eye on Islamism

Germany urged to clarify refugee policy for Palestinians After having just lifted a controversial 18-month freeze on asylum rulings, Germany is being pressed to grant full refugee status to Palestinians as Israel's actions in Gaza claim ever more civilian casualties.

July 24, 2025 Julie Gregson

(Deutsche Welle) Shafiq* is a Palestinian man who ended up in limbo after he managed to get out of Gaza and make his way via Egypt and Turkey to Germany, where he applied for asylum. The right to asylum is enshrined in […]

German lower house backs plan to halt refugee family reunification

June 27, 2025 Riham Alkousaa

(Reuters) Germany’s Bundestag lower house passed a bill on Friday to suspend family reunification for migrants who do not qualify for full refugee status, fulfilling a conservative election pledge to curb migration and ease pressure on integration systems. Migration was a pivotal […]

German Cabinet approves stricter asylum measures The German government has proposed several new measures as it pushes on with plans to further curb irregular migration. This comes despite a legal setback this week when a court ruled pushbacks at the border unlawful.

June 4, 2025 Timothy Jones

(Deutsche Welle) The German Cabinet on Wednesday approved several measures to tighten Germany’s asylum laws, including a plan to make it easier to determine “safe countries of origin” and thus to deport rejected asylum-seekers. This comes after another policy put in place […]

Germany halts Afghan refugee admission flights pending new government decision

April 23, 2025 Riham Alkousaa

(Reuters) Germany’s outgoing government has suspended flights for voluntary admissions of Afghan refugees for two weeks pending a decision by the next government on how to proceed, the foreign ministry said on Wednesday. Earlier this month, the future governing coalition of conservatives […]

Europe’s Syrians shaken by debate over repatriation to their war-ravaged homeland For many Syrian refugees in Europe, joy at the fall of Assad has been tempered by immediate calls for them to go home.

December 12, 2024 Nette Nöstlinger

(Politico) When Osama Sabsabi learned that opposition forces had captured the city of Homs, where he grew up, he did something that would have been unthinkable just days earlier: He booked a ticket home. “We, the Syrian people, are experiencing an indescribable […]

Syrians in Germany worried by some politicians’ eagerness for them to go home after Assad’s fall

December 10, 2024 Kirsten Grieshaber and Geir Moulson

(AP) Nearly a decade after he arrived in Germany from Syria and took a selfie with then-Chancellor Angela Merkel, Anas Modamani has finished his university studies and has a German passport. He’s less positive about some German politicians’ reactions to the fall […]

Germany resumes deportations to Afghanistan

August 30, 2024 Riham Alkousaa and Ludwig Burger

(Reuters) Germany said it resumed flying convicted criminals of Afghan nationality to their home country on Friday, days before German regional elections in which migration is a campaign issue. Berlin stopped returning people to Afghanistan because of human rights concerns after the […]

German court rules in migration case that there’s no general danger now to all civilians in Syria

July 23, 2024 Unlisted Author

(AP) A German court has ruled that there is no longer a general danger to all civilians from the long-running conflict in Syria, rejecting a claim to protected status by a Syrian man who had been convicted in Austria for involvement in […]

German state politicians urge deportations to Afghanistan, Syria

June 19, 2024 Unlisted Author

(DPA) A controversial debate in Germany over whether to resume deportations of convicted criminals to Syria and Afghanistan was the main topic of discussions as interior ministers from the country’s 16 states convened just outside of Berlin on Wednesday evening. The state […]

Berlin New Year’s Eve riots rekindle immigration debate

January 17, 2023 Riham Alkousaa

(Reuters) Youth riots that erupted in Berlin on New Year’s Eve have rekindled a debate over immigration just as Germany is preparing reforms to lure a new wave of skilled foreign workers to Europe’s largest economy. Dozens of police officers, firefighters, rescue […]

In Germany, Syrians worry Afghan crisis could fuel anti-migrant vote

August 23, 2021 Joseph Nasr

(Reuters) With just five weeks to go before Germany holds an election that decides who succeeds Chancellor Angela Merkel, Syrians on asylum visas are concerned that an Afghan migrant crisis could fuel an anti-immigrant vote and block their path to citizenship. Some […]

Germany to allow deportations of ‘suspect’ Syrians

December 11, 2020 Deborah Cole

(AFP) Germany said Friday it would allow deportation of Syrians to their war-ravaged homeland from 2021 if they are deemed a security risk, five years after a massive refugee influx. The EU’s biggest economic power and most populous member allowed in hundreds […]

German minister wants ‘criminals’ expelled to Syria, despite asylum safeguards Interior Minister Horst Seehofer wants Germany's general ban on deportations to war-torn Syria weakened to return persons deemed criminal or dangerous. Rights groups accuse him of pandering to the far right.

November 27, 2020 Unlisted Author

(Deutsche Welle) Germany’s current general deportation stop to Syria should not be extended, Interior Minister Horst Seehofer said Friday, urging that individual case-by-case decisions be made “at least for criminals and those considered a threat.” In 2012, Germany passed a ban on […]

Five years after refugee influx, Merkel ‘would do the same’

August 28, 2020 Isabelle Le Page and Femke Colborne

(AFP) Five years after Germany controversially took in hundreds of thousands of migrants, Chancellor Angela Merkel said Friday she would do the same again as she rides a wave of popularity for her handling of the coronavirus pandemic. “I would make essentially […]

In Berlin, refugees get classes on sexual consent

July 31, 2019 Mathieu Foulkes

(AFP) In a classroom workshop, students watch a video of a man and woman meeting in a nightclub. The two drink, laugh, dance and kiss. The tone in the room and on the screen quickly changes when the man takes the woman […]