By Michael Seifert
Since taking office in May 2025, the new German government has closed all important avenues for refugees to come to Germany to seek asylum through regular channels. This is the conclusion reached by the „Mediendienst Integration” in an analysis published at the end of August. Refugees therefore only have the option of entering Germany without a residence permit and applying for asylum when crossing the border. However, this option is also significantly restricted by tighter border controls and rejections directly at the border. tuenews INTERNATIONAL has reported on this practice and the legal and political criticism it has attracted: tun25011406 and tun25052006.
The legal routes to Germany that have been closed were the UN resettlement program, the federal admission programs, and humanitarian admission for particularly vulnerable persons, as well as family reunification for refugees with subsidiary protection.
No more program for particularly vulnerable people
The German government discontinued the resettlement program back in May 2025. Resettlement enables particularly vulnerable people to enter a country that is willing to accept them. Only persons recognized as refugees by the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) can participate in resettlement. These are refugees in particular need of protection, such as minors, survivors of torture or violence, and people with disabilities. In recent years, most of those who came under the program were from Syria (6,100 people), Sudan (1,100), Somalia (906), and Eritrea (688). The countries that took in the most resettlement refugees worldwide in 2024 were the US (approx. 105,500 people), Canada (49,300), and Australia (17,200). The UNHCR estimates that there are around 2.5 million people worldwide who would be eligible for the program.
The German government has ended voluntary federal resettlement programs such as the program for politically endangered Afghans. Only people who have already received a resettlement commitment can now fight for their entry by filing a lawsuit in German courts. (tuenews reported: tun25040104) 2,300 Afghans with admission commitments were still waiting in Pakistan to leave the country; only 50 of them have arrived in Germany so far. 200 of them have already been deported from Pakistan back to Afghanistan, and the latest reports from the Foreign Office indicate that there will be another 30 deportations.
The procedure for humanitarian admission for particularly vulnerable individuals („to safeguard the political interests of the Federal Republic of Germany” § 22 AufenthG) is now only to be applied in exceptional cases. Since the federal government took office, only 45 people have received such a declaration of admission. As the „Mediendienst Integration” has researched, dissidents from Russia are particularly affected by the federal government’s stance. Since 2022, persecuted Russians in particular, such as human rights defenders and people who organized resistance against the war of aggression against Ukraine, have been able to find protection in Germany, which is no longer possible.
Suspension of family reunification
Family reunification with persons entitled to subsidiary protection in Germany has been suspended by law since July 24, 2025, for an expected period of two years. During this time, no visas can be issued for family reunification with persons entitled to subsidiary protection. Previously, reunification was limited to 1,000 visas per month and was granted on a discretionary basis, taking humanitarian reasons into account. At the European level, the European Court of Human Rights ruled in 2021, in a case concerning family reunification for a person with subsidiary protection in Denmark, that a complete suspension of family reunification for persons with subsidiary protection is not permitted: according to the ruling, states may exclude family reunification for two years, but must then examine each individual case.
Success stories and legal assessment
According to the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees, new asylum applications in August 2025 fell by 60% compared to the same month in 2024, from 18,427 to 7,803. Federal Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt sees the declining numbers as a success for the federal government’s migration policy: „Our asylum policy change is working, our measures are successful.”
tuenews INTERNATIONAL asked Tübingen-based lawyer Holger Rothbauer, an expert in immigration and refugee law who has represented many refugees in court, for his assessment of the new federal government’s overall asylum policy package. He first expressed fundamental constitutional concerns: „Fundamental rights are slowly being suspended. Article 6 of the Basic Law states: ‘Marriage and the family shall enjoy the special protection of the constitutional order’ – similarly in Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights and in the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights.”
However, Rothbauer’s criticism of the suspension of family reunification also has very practical aspects: „Integration is much more successful if even just one family member is allowed to join the refugee. I have seen numerous examples of this here in the district of Tübingen. And in the vast majority of cases, family members who arrived later have also integrated very well, even into the labor market.”
The lawyer sees the motivation behind all the government’s measures as follows: „They believe that taking a hard line will win them votes and no longer pay any attention to whether the measures are constitutional and legally compliant. The judiciary, which is actually the weakest link in the separation of powers, now has to act: Fortunately, the courts have intervened in government policy with regard to the commitments already made to Afghans at risk and are demanding that these commitments be honored, even threatening to impose fines.”
Clear violations of EU law
When asked for his assessment of the rejections at the border, Holger Rothbauer replies: „It is applicable EU law that the state in which a refugee applies for asylum or utters the word ‘asylum’ is responsible for the asylum procedure. If these people are turned away before they can even submit their application, this is a clear violation of applicable EU law and also of the Basic Law (Article 16a).” In this case, the Dublin Regulation comes into force, which stipulates: „If a refugee enters Germany via Austria from Italy, for example, and submits an application here, the country he first entered must declare within a period of usually six months that it will take him back and carry out an orderly procedure. In many cases, this is not the case, and Germany is then responsible.”
Rothbauer’s conclusion: „If the executive branch knowingly disregards applicable law, as in the area of asylum, then we have a problem; then we no longer have the rule of law.”
To the „Mediendienst Integration” dossier:
MEDIENDIENST INTEGRATION | Central legal escape routes to Germany closed
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