Arrival at the border and border controls
The law states that asylum seekers who apply for asylum at the border have to be referred to an initial reception centre for asylum seekers.[1] However, entry into the territory has to be refused if a migrant reports at the border without the necessary documents for legal entry and if an immediate removal to the neighbouring country (as Safe Third Country) is possible.[2]
Since 2013, asylum seekers should not be sent back to neighbouring countries without their applications for international protection having been registered. It is not clear, however, whether this practice is applied in all cases: even if migrants have crossed the border – which is defined as a 30 km strip on the basis of a legal fiction laid down in the Law on the Federal Police (based on the Schengen Borders Code)[3] – they have not necessarily entered the territory,[4] and it is possible that a removal to the neighbouring state (Zurückweisung) is still carried out at this point without examination which country is responsible for treating the asylum application.[5] In 2022, border control authorities detected a total of 34,731 persons entering Germany irregularly and asking for asylum. Out of these, 34,061 were referred to the BAMF.[6]
With the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, the German government introduced temporary border controls at internal Schengen borders at various points in time.[7] In June 2022, all remaining entry restrictions and Covid-related border controls were lifted, except for countries designated as ‘virus-variant-areas’. No countries were designated as such areas in 2022.[8]
Independently of the pandemic situation, Germany has regularly re-introduced border controls at its borders with Austria since 2015. The controls have been continued throughout 2022, and are in place until 11 May 2023 at the time of writing of this report.[9] The prolongations occurred despite a ruling of the CJEU of 26 April 2022 in which the court states that border controls cannot exceed a duration of 6 months unless there is a new threat justifying a renewed introduction of controls for another six months maximum.[10] The extension has been criticised by NGOs such as PRO ASYL, who argue that controls lead to refusals of entry of would-be asylum seekers in Germany, who are denied access to an assessment by the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees whether Germany might be responsible for handling their asylum application.[11] A representative of the union of police officers equally criticised the extensions, on the grounds that they do not reduce irregular immigration but rather shift routes to other land borders.[12]
In 2018, following a heated political debate, a new procedure was introduced which enables the Federal Police to refuse entry at the border and send persons back to Greece and Spain within 48 hours if they have previously applied for asylum there.[13] This procedure is based on administrative regulations and special administrative readmission agreements with the two countries. These returns are therefore not based on the Dublin Regulation, but on a refusal of entry under the (national) notion of ‘safe third countries’ in combination with administrative arrangements concluded with other EU Member States. Since 2019, it was only applied to persons found at the Austrian-German border, as this was the only border where controls continue to take place. While being heavily debated in 2018, the introduction of the new procedure had little effect in practice: between August 2018 and May 2021, only 50 persons were returned (46 returns to Greece and 4 to Spain) on the basis of the readmission agreements with these countries.[14] While no refusals of entry were carried out between May 2021 and the end of 2021 according to the Federal Police,[15] two persons were returned to Spain in 2022.[16] Therefore, the political debate over the return procedures at the border, which had even triggered a government crisis in 2018, has been described as ‘absurd’ in retrospect.[17]
The legality of the new procedure has been questioned by legal experts,[18] and forced returns that took place on its basis were subject to court challenges, including requests for interim measures to bring back the forcibly returned applicants. The responsible court – the administrative court of Munich –granted interim measures and ordered the German Federal Police to bring back asylum seekers from Greece in two cases in 2019 and 2021.[19] While the two cases are still pending as of March 2023, the 2021 decision on interim measures states that the Dublin regulation has to be applied instead of the procedure foreseen by the administrative regulations agreements, and that the removal cannot take place without an examination by the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees, which is the competent authority for the Dublin procedure. In May 2021, the Federal Ministry of the Interior stated it did not intend to change neither its practice nor its legal assessment in light of the court decision of May 2021.[20] In October 2021, the Ministry of Interior declared its willingness to conclude a renewed agreement with Greece and to potentially reintroduce border controls at airports with flights from Greece.[21] However, the declaration occurred only weeks before the end of term of the Minister of Interior who had initiated the procedure. No information is available as to whether the new Federal government continues to apply the agreements. More information on the procedure and the legal challenges brought against it can be found in the 2019 Update to this report as well as in ECRE’s assessment of transfers of asylum seekers based on these agreements.[22]
The outbreak of the war against Ukraine did not lead to the reintroduction of border controls, as Ukrainian nationals and persons residing in Ukraine on the day of the outbreak can enter German without the need for a visa (for more details see the Report on Temporary Protection).[23] However, the number of illegal border crossings detected by the Federal Police was higher in 2022 compared to 2021,[24] and the Federal Police did enhance its activity at the internal borders, including on trains transporting persons fleeing Ukraine. According to the Federal Police, this was to ‘help the rapid granting of protection for eligible persons and to help safeguard basic security needs’.[25]
The humanitarian crisis at the Polish-Belarussian border had effects on border-crossing into Germany in 2021, with border crossings decreasing significantly since the start of 2022. In 2021, the Federal Police registered 11,228 border crossings ‘with a connection to Belarus’, with the highest number of crossings reported between September and November 2021.[26] According to the Federal Police, the main nationalities of persons crossing into Germany were from Iraq, Syria, Yemen and Afghanistan.[27] The Federal Government did not introduce temporary border controls, and refusals of entry at the German-Polish border are therefore not permitted. The Federal Police conducts ‘intensive search measures short of border controls’ in the border area.[28] Over the course of 2022, the number of unauthorised border crossings from Poland into Germany decreased, with 8,760 detected crossings.[29] During the first half of the year, most of the detected persons came from Iraq or Syria, while an increase was detected for Egyptian nationals.[30]
Legal access to the territory
On top of family reunification, there are two main ways for asylum seekers to legally access the German territory: via the Government’s resettlement and humanitarian admission programmes and via relocation from other EU Member States. In addition, a specific admission programme for Afghan nationals was introduced in October 2022 (see Differential treatment of specific nationalities in the procedure).
Since 2016, the German resettlement programme is part of Germany’s contribution to the EU resettlement scheme.[31] Next to the national quota, resettlement includes admissions of Syrian refugees from Türkiye in the context of the so-called EU-Turkey statement. In addition, the Federal Government can decide on humanitarian admission programmes on an ad hoc, temporary basis. Such a temporary humanitarian admission programme was in place for 20,000 Syrian refugees between 2013 and 2015.[32]
In the resettlement programme, the BAMF is responsible for the selection process together with the UNHCR. Once resettled refugees arrive in Germany, they first stay in a reception centre for up to two weeks. Whereas in previous years, all resettlement refugees were first housed in the reception centre of Friedland (Lower Saxony), the resettlement guidelines for 2022 foresee housing in Friedland as well as Doberlug-Kirchhain (Brandenburg) or other facilities made available by Federal States.[33] They are then allocated to a municipality, where they are issued a residence permit which is equivalent in rights to residence permits granted to recognised refugees.[34]
In 2019, the German government introduced an additional private sponsorship programme in the form of a pilot scheme with 500 additional places. In the programme called “Neustart im Team (NesT)” groups of at least four persons commit to accompany and support resettled refugees for at least one year and to pay for their rent during two years. This was lowered to one year on 1 July 2022.[35] The Federal government decided to make the programme permanent from 1 January 2023, with 200 places available per year. The conditions were slightly changed: groups of four people can apply to be sponsors; and in contrast to the pilot phase, they only need to pay rent (without electricity, water and heating) for one year.[36]
The Federal States also run admission programmes mainly for Syrian nationals, but these are mostly geared towards family members of beneficiaries of international protection residing in the respective Federal States (see Family Reunification). Three Federal States – Schleswig-Holstein, Berlin and Brandenburg – have introduced their own admission programmes. Schleswig-Holstein introduced an admission programme for a total of 500 persons from Egypt and Ethiopia in 2018 that ended at the end of 2021 with a total of 511 admissions.[37] Berlin has pledged to resettle 100 persons per year from Lebanon up to a total of 500. Brandenburg in turn pledged to admit 200 persons per year, up to a total of 800 persons.[38]
| Year | Resettlement places pledged | Persons admitted |
| 2016 / 2017 | 1,600 | 1,600 |
| 2018 / 2019 | 10,200 | 8,000 |
| 2020 | 5,500 | 1,178 (due to Covid-related suspension) |
| 2021 | 485 (in addition to persons not admitted from the 2020 pledges) | 5,369 |
| 2022 | 6,000 | 4,770 |
Source: Federal Ministry of the Interior, ‘Resettlement und humanitäre Aufnahmen’, available in German at https://bit.ly/3H4rqhK. Note that the website www.resettlement.de provides more detailed statistics (under ‘current admissions’) on every arrival that was processed through Friedland since 2015 and until the end of 2021. However, the counting differs from the Ministry of Interior, since the national and state-level humanitarian admission / family reunification programmes are also included and since the statistics only refer to persons who passed through the reception centre in Friedland.
Germany pledged a total of 6,000 resettlement places in 2022, which is higher than in previous years. Out of the 6,000 places, up to 2,500 places are allocated to the national resettlement programme, up to 200 places are foreseen for the NesT programme, up to 3,000 places are allocated for admission of Syrian nationals from Türkiye under the EU Türkiye statement, and 300 places are allocated to admission programmes of the Federal states of Berlin and Brandenburg. Admission through the resettlement programme are divided between Jordan (up to 400 places), Lebanon (up to 700 persons), Egypt (up to 800 persons), Kenia (up to 350 persons and Niger (up to 250 persons).[39] A total of 4,770 persons was admitted in 2022. Out of these, 1,603 persons were admitted through the national resettlement programme and the NesT programme, 2,857 persons were admitted through the humanitarian admission programme for Syrians in Türkiye, and 310 persons were admitted through the programmes led by Schleswig-Holstein (8), Berlin (112) and Brandenburg (190).[40] Over the course of 2021, a total of 5,369 persons was admitted to Germany through the various resettlement programmes. Out of these, 2,377 came through the resettlement programme; 69 persons were admitted under the private sponsorship programme NesT; 2,192 were admitted from Türkiye and 731 persons were admitted through admission programmes of the Federal States of Berlin, Brandenburg and Schleswig-Holstein.[41]
For humanitarian admission programmes for Afghanistan, see Differential treatment of specific nationalities in the procedure.
As regards relocation, Germany relocated a (small) number of asylum seekers from other EU Member states based on temporary and ad hoc agreements over the last years. In March 2020, Germany agreed to admit 243 minors from Greece based on an agreement of a ‘coalition of the willing’ at EU level. Following the fire in the Moria camp on the Greek island of Lesbos, the government agreed to admit an additional 150 unaccompanied minor refugees and 1,553 persons in family groups.[42] A total of 210 unaccompanied minors from Greece were relocated to Germany in 2020.[43] In total, 2,812 persons were admitted between April 2020 and the end of 2021.[44] In 2022, admissions for persons rescued at sea continue on a case-by-case basis. As of May 2022, a total of 936 persons were admitted since the summer of 2018.[45] In August 2022, Germany pledged to admit 3,500 persons from Italy under the new EU Solidarity mechanism initiated by the French Council presidency.[46] A total of 212 were admitted to Germany through this mechanism in 2022 according to the BAMF.[47]
According to the EU Visa Code, a visa with limited territorial validity can be issued by Member States when they consider it necessary on humanitarian grounds, for reasons of national interest or because of international obligations even if the conditions for issuing a uniform Schengen visa are not fulfilled (Article 25 paragraph 1a of the Visa Code). Germany however does not issue humanitarian visas in the context of asylum applications. For visas issued in the context of evacuations from Afghanistan see Differential treatment of specific nationalities in the procedure.
[1] Section 18 (1) Asylum Act.
[2] Section 18(2) Asylum Act and Sections 14 and 15 Residence Act.
[3] Section 2(2) Federal Police Act.
[4] Section 13(2) Residence Act.
[5] Pro Asyl, Fortgesetzte Grenzkontrollen: rechtswidrige Zurückweisung von Geflüchteten, 28 April 2022, available in German at http://bit.ly/3lBKTAP.
[6] Federal Government, Reply to parliamentary question by The Left, 20/5870, 28 February 2023, available in German at: https://bit.ly/40KZhWi, 70.
[7] For further information see AIDA, Country Report Germany – Update on the year 2021, April 2022, available at https://bit.ly/3XnN7RS, 22.
[8] Federal Government, Coronavirus in Deutschland: Die wichtigsten Fragen und Antworten für Reisende, 28 September 2022, available in German at http://bit.ly/3JJfiVE.
[9] European Commission, ‘Temporary Reintroduction of Border Control’, available at: https://bit.ly/3HLwSGd.
[10] CJEU. Case C-368/20, NW v Landespolizeidirektion Steiermark, judgement of 26 April 2022, available at http://bit.ly/40gPAPE.
[11] Pro Asyl, Fortgesetzte Grenzkontrollen: rechtswidrige Zurückweisung von Geflüchteten, 28 April 2022, available in German at https://bit.ly/3lBKTAP.
[12] Süddeutsche Zeitung, Faeser verlängert Kontrollen an Grenze zu Österreich, 27 April 2022, available in German at http://bit.ly/3JLCRgC.
[13] The text of the German-Spanish Administrative Arrangement is available at: http://bit.ly/2G2lZ7E. The text of the German-Greek Administrative Arrangement is available at: https://bit.ly/3HkJ4Nx.
[14] Federal Ministry of the Interior, Response to written question by Ulla Jelpke (The Left), 14 May 2021, available in German at: https://bit.ly/3hnv2jp.
[15] Information provided by the Federal Police, 6 April 2022.
[16] Information provided by the Federal Police, 14 March 2023.
[17] Süddeutsche Zeitung, Der Streit war absurd, 3 November 2019, available in German at: https://bit.ly/3011Y8e.
[18] A collection of statements by various experts and institutions can be found at: https://bit.ly/2zwUPTs. See also Anna Lübbe, Vereinbarkeit der Zurückweisungspraxis unter dem deutsch-griechischen »Seehofer-Abkommen« mit unionsrechtlichen Vorgaben zum effektiven Rechtsschutz, 6 December 2018,available in German at: https://bit.ly/2VyPGQq; ECRE, Bilateral Agreements: Implementing or Bypassing the Dublin Regulation?, December 2018, available at: https://bit.ly/2GgVoEf.
[19] Administrative Court Munich, Decision M 22 E 21.30294, 4 May 2021 – see Asylmagazin 7-8/2021, 292, available in German at https://bit.ly/3ID8I13; Decision M 18 E 19.32238, 8 August 2019 – see Asylmagazin 10-11/2019, 371; available in German at: https://www.asyl.net/rsdb/m27488/.
[20] Federal Ministry of the Interior, Response to written question by Ulla Jelpke (The Left), 14 May 2021, available in German at: https://bit.ly/3hnv2jp.
[21] Federal Ministry of the Interior, ‘Kabinett berät aktuelle Migrationslage’, 20.10.2021, available in German at: https://bit.ly/3JOjeUk.
[22] AIDA, Country Report Germany – Update on the year 2019, July 2020, available at: https://bit.ly/3GlpjEQ, 20-21; See also: ECRE, Bilateral Agreements: Implementing or Bypassing the Dublin Regulation?, December 2018; available at: https://bit.ly/2GgVoEf.
[23] Federal Police, Bislang etwa 253.000 Kriegsvertriebene mit Ukraine-Bezug festgestellt, 25 March 2022, available in German at http://bit.ly/3LOco4T.
[24] Federal Police, Feststellung unerlaubter Einreisen durch die Bundespolizei, 07 December 2022, available in German at http://bit.ly/42GPTVh.
[25] Information provided by the Federal Police, 14 March 2023.
[26] Federal Police, Illegale Migration aus Belarus über Polen nach Deutschland konstant auf niedrigem Niveau: 361 Feststellungen durch die Bundespolizei seit Jahresbeginn, 2 February 2022, available in German at https://bit.ly/3vfraJB.
[27] Deutschlandfunk Kultur, ‘Die neue Belarus-Route’, 4 November 2021, available in German at: https://bit.ly/3Ilgb4R.
[28] Federal Police, Illegale Migration aus Belarus über Polen nach Deutschland konstant auf niedrigem Niveau: 361 Feststellungen durch die Bundespolizei seit Jahresbeginn, 2 February 2022, available in German at https://bit.ly/3vfraJB.
[29] Information provided by the Federal Police, 14 March 2023.
[30] Mediendienst Integration, Ein Jahr humanitäre Krise an der Belarus-EU-Grenze, 5 August 2022, available in German at: http://bit.ly/3JHlvBE.
[31] Federal Ministry of the Interior, ‘Resettlement und humanitäre Aufnahmen’, available in German at: https://bit.ly/3H4rqhK.
[32] resettlement.de,‘Humanitarian admission programmes’, available at: https://bit.ly/3fSx62o.
[33] Federal Ministry of the Interior, Anordnung des Bundesministeriums des Innern und für Heimat für das Resettlement-Verfahren 2022 gemäß § 23 Abs. 4 des Aufenthaltsgesetzes (AufenthG) zur Aufnahme besonders schutzbedürftiger Flüchtlinge unterschiedlicher Staatsangehörigkeit oder staatenloser Flüchtlinge aus Ägypten, Jordanien, Kenia und Libanon sowie über den UNHCR Evakuierungsmechanismus in Niger (aus Libyen) vom 24.03.2022, 24 March 2022, available in German at: https://bit.ly/3TIdpNv.
[34] resettlement.de, ‘Resettlement, available at https://bit.ly/3qVMD7P.
[35] Federal Ministry of the Interior, Pilotprogramm NesT wird reguläres Aufnahmeprogramm für Flüchtlinge, 01 July 2022, available in German at http://bit.ly/3zapdi5.
[36] Federal Ministry of the Interior, ‘Resettlement und humanitäre Aufnahmen’, available in German at: https://bit.ly/3H4rqhK.
[37] Ministry for the Interior, municipalities, housing and sport of Schleswig-Holstein, Erfolgreicher Abschluss des Landesaufnahmeprogramms, 17 December 2021, available in German at http://bit.ly/40zW9fB.
[38] Resettlement.de, Aktuelle Aufnahmen, available in German at http://bit.ly/40fobgN.
[39] Federal Ministry of the Interior, ‘Resettlement und humanitäre Aufnahmen’, available in German at: https://bit.ly/3H4rqhK and BAMF, Das Bundesamt in Zahlen 2021, available in German at https://bit.ly/40zu7ks, 78.
[40] Information provided by the BAMF, 9 March 2023.
[41] BAMF, Das Bundesamt in Zahlen 2021, available in German at https://bit.ly/40zu7ks, 77.
[42] BAMF, Migrationsbericht 2020 der Bundesregierung, December 2021, available in German at https://bit.ly/3nTDv1J, 22.
[43] Reply of the Parliamentary State Secretary for the Ministry of the Interior to a question by Gökay Akbulut (The Left), 19/25159, 11 December 2020, available in German at https://bit.ly/3FXPIsn, 11.
[44] BAMF, Migrationsbericht 2020 der Bundesregierung, December 2021, available in German at https://bit.ly/3nTDv1J, 22.
[45] BAMF, Das Bundesamt in Zahlen 2021, 79, available in German at https://bit.ly/3k0wtZy. A detailed overview of rescues with a pledge of admission by Germany and the number of persons rescued and relocated to Germany is available in a parliamentary request of April 2022: Federal Government, Response to information request by The Left, 20/1316, 6 April 2022, 10 et seq.
[46] Infomigrants, Germany to take in migrants from Italy under EU solidarity mechanism, 10 August 2022, available at https://bit.ly/3LOovyB.
[47] Information provided by the BAMF, 9 March 2023.