Berlin wants deportation deal with Syria – DW – 09/27/2025

German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt on Saturday said Berlin hopes to strike a deportation deal with the Syrian government by year’s end.

The deal will focus on the repatriation of Syrians who have been denied asylum yet remain in Germany. 

“We want to reach an agreement with Syria this year and initially deport criminals, followed later by those without legal residence,” Dobrindt said in remarks published in the regional Rheinische Post newspaper.

“It is important to distinguish between people who are well integrated and working, and those without asylum rights who rely on social benefits,” he continued, adding that talks would begin “shortly.”

How many Syrians are in Germany?

Germany has not deported anyone to Syria since 2012. 

Dobrindt said he has instructed the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) to partially resume the review of paused asylum applications in order to determine who can stay and who must be deported.

Though numbers remain low, Germany’s Interior Ministry said that 1,867 people had voluntarily returned to Syria between the fall of Bashar Assad last December and the end of August.

About 955,000 Syrian nationals are currently living in Germany according to BAMF’s Central Register of Foreigners (AZR), with Interior Department data documenting that about 83,150 had become German citizens in 2024.

Berlin also keen on Afghans’ deportation, Dobrindt says

Dobrindt said he also aims to establish “regular and systematic” deportations to Afghanistan.

To date, Berlin has only been able to deport criminal Afghans with the help of intermediary Qatar since Germany has no formal diplomatic ties to the ruling Taliban.

Human rights and refugee organizations criticized the two deportation flights Germany has carried out to Afghanistan so far, saying the country is unsafe under the hardline Islamist Taliban, who returned to power in 2021.