The updated AIDA Country Report on Germany provides a detailed overview on legislative and practice-related developments in asylum procedures, reception conditions, detention of asylum applicants and content of international protection in 2024. It is accompanied by an annex which provides 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 2023 are set out below.
Asylum procedure
- Statistics: In 2024, the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) received 229,751 first-time asylum applications (30.2% decrease from 2023) and 21,194 subsequent applications (7% decrease from 2023). Syria, Afghanistan and Türkiye remained the main countries of origin of applicants. The overall protection rate stood at 44.4% (down from 51.7% in 2023). The average processing time for an application increased from 6.8 months in 2023 to 8.7 months in 2024, and up to 12 months in January 2025 as the BAMF prioritised clearing older cases.
- Increased Schengen Border control measures and increased border rejections: Germany significantly expanded its border control policies in 2024, including extending temporary internal border checks to all land borders. This provoked substantial criticism from NGOs and legal experts. Data has shown an increase in the number of border rejections throughout 2023 and 2024, and the percentage of intercepted people who have applied for asylum fell from 45% in 2023 to 23% in the first half of 2024. This has affected many people from countries with high asylum recognition rates such as Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq.
- High number of requests, low number of Dublin transfers: In 2024, German authorities filed 74,583 outgoing transfer requests to other EU member states – mainly Greece, Croatia and Italy – but only 5,827 transfers actually took place (7.8% of requests). At the same time, Germany received 14,984 requests and 4,592 incoming transfers took place.
- Transfers of certain beneficiaries of international protection to Italy and Greece deemed legal: In November 2024, the Federal Administrative Court determined that non-vulnerable, employable protection holders could reasonably return to Italy, citing available accommodation through churches and NGOs, and employment opportunities. In April 2025, the court made a similar ruling on Greece, concluding that single, employable, non-vulnerable individuals with protection status would not face inhuman or degrading conditions upon return to the country, thus allowing German authorities to reject such asylum applications as inadmissible. In 2024, decisions for individuals with international protection status in Greece resulted in a drop in the overall protection rate (45% compared to 84.2% in 2023) and an increase in the number of formal decisions, including inadmissibility (44.1% in 2024 compared to 11.5% in 2023).
- Legal changes on subsequent asylum applications: In February 2024, Germany enacted the ‘Law on Improving Deportation Procedures’. As a result, the grounds for declaring applications manifestly unfounded were increased, as were the possibilities for deportations in cases of subsequent applications. While the changes were intended to accelerate deportations and reduce system misuse, human rights organisations have criticised their potential risks to procedural fairness and protection standards.
- Suspension of decision-making regarding Gaza: As of March 2025, the BAMF had not been making decisions on asylum applications from individuals from the Gaza Strip for over a year due to the “temporarily uncertain situation” in the territory. As of 28 February 2025, a total of 1,218 asylum procedures concerning “persons from Palestinian territories (not recognised as a state)” were pending before the BAMF. In 2024, several administrative courts ruled that such uncertainty could no longer be assumed in light of the “dramatic situation and widespread destruction in the Gaza Strip”.
Reception conditions
- Implementation of the payment card (Bezahlkarte): The payment card for asylum applicants officially became a recognised form of benefit distribution in May 2024. By mid-2024, Bavaria had fully implemented the system. The coordinated rollout across 14 federal states was set for January 2025. The card limits cash withdrawals (typically €50 per month) and prohibits transfers, sparking criticism from civil society organisations (CSOs) and several court rulings on unlawful restrictions of its use.
- Adjustment of benefits and social policy shift: While financial allowances under the Asylum Seekers’ Benefits Act were increased at the beginning of 2024, a reduction was implemented in January 2025. This provoked renewed criticism from NGOs who argued that the distinction between German nationals and asylum applicants in defining “basic needs” lacked justification.
- Reception pressure and ongoing use of emergency shelters: The use of emergency shelters in major cities such as Berlin, Hamburg and Cologne was prolonged due to the lack of long-term housing options available. Overcrowding, long waiting times for permanent housing and lack of privacy and hygiene have persisted. Municipalities continued to report being overburdened and having insufficient funding and infrastructure for long-term accommodation despite the new financing model that was introduced in 2024.
Detention of asylum applicants
- New legislation enters into force: The ‘Act on the Improvement of Removals’, which entered into force in February 2024, introduced new and expanded grounds for detention, and lengthened the maximum period for custody pending removal, etc. This reform was criticised by CSOs for curtailing the rights of non-nationals’ and fast-tracking legislative changes without sufficient consultation.
- Changes in detention conditions in pre-removal centres in Bavaria: Following a ruling by the Federal Court of Justice in March 2024, the Hof and Eichstätt centres in Bavaria introduced new rules to better distinguish detention conditions from those of the penal system. These included allowing for more freedom of movement within the centre, daily outdoor access and the lifting of limits on visiting times.
Content of international protection
- Cessation and revocation: In 2024, the number of actual revocations remained low, as the status of 2,229 people was withdrawn or revoked. A number of legal reforms that took place in 2024 abolished routine reviews of protection status, limited cessation to voluntary declarations and required revocations to be based on concrete individual circumstances.
- Key jurisprudence on family reunification: In January 2024, the Court of Justice of the EU reaffirmed that the age of a child at the time of the asylum application – not at the time of the family’s departure – was decisive for the right to family reunification. German courts had previously interpreted this requirement more restrictively. While the Federal Government announced that it would implement the ruling, CSOs criticised the years of non-compliance and resulting family separations. Waiting times for family reunification visas remained excessive in 2024, with delays exceeding 12 months in several embassies.
- Naturalisation reform: A new law which entered into force in June 2024 reduced the waiting period for naturalisation from eight to five years (or three years in cases of exceptional integration).
Temporary protection
- Statistics on temporary protection: As of March 2025, 1,075,217 people held a residence permit for temporary protection under Section 24 of the Residence Act.
- End of eligibility for certain third-country nationals: The May 2024 circular from the Federal Ministry of the Interior clarified that third-country nationals who only had a temporary residence in Ukraine before they arrived in Germany would lose their eligibility for temporary protection after March 2025 at which time they would need to seek asylum or an alternative residence permit.
- Housing: Studies published in 2024 and 2025 showed that more than 75% of Ukrainian refugees were being housed in private accommodation while the remainder were living in reception centres and hotels. However, a shortage of available housing – both private and in reception centres – remains a serious issue in parts of the country (e.g. Hamburg and Berlin).
- Freedom of movement and mobility preserved: Beneficiaries of temporary protection may travel within the EU for up to 90 days within a 180 day period and may temporarily return to Ukraine without it affecting their protection status.
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.