Overview
- Official data show 97,277 first-time asylum applications from January through October 2025, down from 199,947 in the same period of 2024.
- October registered 8,823 first-time applications versus 19,785 a year earlier, a decrease of about 55 percent.
- Since May, about 18,600 people have been turned away or pushed back at internal borders under stricter controls ordered by Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt.
- Deportations rose to 17,651 from January to September 2025 compared with 14,706 a year earlier, and the minister says returns will be further increased.
- Authorities are pursuing a returns arrangement with Syria and have resumed processing for a defined subgroup of Syrian men, while experts cite Balkan measures, EU trends, and changed conditions in Syria and question the government’s claimed deterrent effect.