The updated AIDA Country Report on Germany provides a detailed overview of legislative and practice-related developments in asylum procedures, reception conditions, detention of asylum applicants and content of international protection in 2025. It is accompanied by an annex providing an overview of temporary protection.
A number of key developments drawn from the overview of the main changes that have taken place since the publication of the update on 2024 are set out below.
(A) International protection
Asylum procedure
- Statistics: The Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) received 168,543 asylum applications in 2025. This represented a significant decrease from the two previous years. There was also a significant decrease in the overall protection rate (28% down from 44% in 2024). This was primarily due to a collapse in the protection rate for Syrians following the fall of the Assad regime and the BAMF’s revised country guidelines (2% down from 44%).
- Access: Access to the German asylum procedure was restricted in practice in 2025 through administrative instructions that authorised the rejection of people seeking asylum at the country’s borders. Several courts questioned the lawfulness of such border rejections and reaffirmed the obligation to allow entry and to conduct an asylum procedure if protection is sought. Despite this, more than 21,500 people were turned back at borders between May and November.
- Safe countries of origin: A major legislative change which was adopted in December 2025 allowed the Federal Government to designate safe countries of origin by statutory ordinance, thus removing the requirement for parliamentary approval and substantially lowering the threshold for future designations.
- Dublin: Germany submitted 35,942 outgoing Dublin requests in 2025. This represented a major decrease compared to the two previous years (74,583 in 2024 and 74,622 in 2023). However, the number of actual transfers remained largely stable (5,377 compared to 5,827 in 2024 and 5,053 in 2023).
Reception conditions
- Payment card for asylum applicant benefits: With the notable exception of Berlin, most states had introduced the payment card system by January 2025. Although there were significant variations in usage rules, monthly cash withdrawals were limited to € 50 in 13 of 16 states. The system is subject to ongoing legal challenges with mixed outcomes and civil society organisations (CSOs) have continued to warn that restrictions may push benefits below the constitutional minimum subsistence level.
- Reduction of social benefits: Benefit rates for asylum applicants were reduced slightly in January 2025 following lower-than-expected inflation in 2024. In addition, the waiting period for access to regular social benefits was extended from 18 to 36 months.
- Establishment of first Dublin centres: Accommodation centres for asylum applicants for whom other EU member states were responsible under the Dublin Regulation (‘Dublin centres’) were established in early 2025 in Hamburg and Eisenhüttenstadt (Brandenburg). Both centres were operational by mid-2025 although occupancy levels remained low.
Detention of asylum applicants
- Reversal of mandatory court-appointed legal counsel: A 2024 reform that had required courts to automatically appoint legal counsel for unrepresented people in pre-removal detention pending departure proceedings was reversed in 2025.
- Dublin detention: A 2026 ruling by the Federal Court of Justice clarified that detention for Dublin transfers is inadmissible if transfer obstacles are apparent at the time of detention.
- Piloting elements from the Pact: In January 2025, the Federal Police Directorate Munich launched a pilot project in which people who are identified via the EU fingerprint database (Eurodac) are placed directly into removal detention facilities and processed for accelerated Dublin transfers under shortened deadlines. The project, which is effectively operationalising elements of the new Asylum Procedures Regulation before they have entered into force, has been criticised by the NGO PRO ASYL on the grounds that it may undermine safeguards, limit access to legal remedies and result in vulnerable people being treated as absconding risks rather than receiving adequate protection.
Content of international protection
- Citizenship: The three-year fast-track naturalisation route which was introduced in 2024 was abolished in 2025 and the standard five-year residence requirement was reinstated.
- Family reunification: In July 2025, family reunification for all beneficiaries of subsidiary protection, including pending cases was suspended for two years. As of December 2025, only two visas were issued under the hardship clause while 2,586 applications were pending. In addition, all ad hoc state-level family reunification programmes were either terminated or not renewed.
(B) Temporary protection
- Statistics: As of 31 December 2025, 1,329,742 people who had fled from Ukraine were registered in the Central Register of Foreigners (AZR).
- Beneficiaries of temporary protection in other EU member states: Following a change that was introduced in August 2025, people who have received temporary protection in another EU member state are no longer eligible to obtain temporary protection in Germany.
- Housing shortages in major cities: Accommodation facilities in Berlin and Hamburg remained under pressure in 2025 despite an overall reduction in the number of The former Tegel airport continued to operate as an overcrowded reception site although the Berlin authorities announced plans to reduce its capacity and to open an additional site at a former army facility.
The full report is available here and the annex on temporary protection is available here.
For more information about the AIDA database or to read other AIDA reports, please visit the AIDA website.