According to German law, minors and members of other vulnerable groups must not be detained while they have the status of asylum applicants. However, asylum seekers may lose this status as a result of a Dublin procedure and may hence be detained for the purpose of a Dublin transfer (see section on Grounds for detention).
Section 62(1) of the Residence Act contains the following provision regarding the detention of children and families:
‘Minors and families with minor children are not to be taken into custody awaiting deportation.’[1]
In 2024, 3,687 children (under 18 years) were deported to third countries or transferred to another state under the Dublin Regulation. These measures usually involve that children are taken into custody for a few hours on the day the transfer takes place. Furthermore, 266 minors were returned to neighbouring countries after being refused entry to the territory, out of which 216 were unaccompanied by parents or legal guardians.[2] The immediate returns (Zurückweisungen) or removals (Zurückschiebungen) are usually preceded by an arrest and a short-term apprehension.
With the exception of these short-term apprehensions, detention of minors ordered by a court seems to be exceptional. In practice, however, detention of (possible) minors may occur in cases in which the age of the persons concerned is uncertain or disputed. The Jesuit Refugee Service and the local NGO Hilfe für Menschen in Abschiebehaft Hof e. V. reported to ECRE a few cases in 2024 of minors who were briefly detained in the facilities in Hof and Eichstätt. In addition, Abschiebehaftberatung Nord refers to the case of a minor who was briefly held at the Glückstadt detention facility in 2023. The local NGO Community for All reports one case of a detained minor aged 17 years and nine months in the detention facility in Darmstadt-Eberstadt in the period between 2017 and 2022 (Hesse)[3] and the Refugee Council of Lower Saxony highlighted the case of an unaccompanied minor who had been detained by way of judicial order in the detention facility of Hannover-Langenhagen immediately after he had arrived from the Netherlands in February 2020. Detention was ordered by a judge despite the fact that the police had recorded his statement that he was 16 years old. An age assessment which took place in the detention centre later on came to the conclusion that it could not be excluded that he was younger than 18. As a result, the detention order had apparently been in breach of a directive from the Federal State which stipulates that minors should not be held in detention pending removal as a matter of principle.[4] An activist from North Rhine-Westphalia further reported in an interview conducted at the end of 2019 that in some cases detained persons have entered the detention facility of Büren as adults (following an age assessment), but have left it as children, because they were found to be of minor age when travel documents were issued by the authorities of the country of origin. In one of these cases, a person detained as an adult was later found to be only 14 years old. The persons concerned were released from detention. Nevertheless, they remain registered as adults in the detention centre‘s statistics, which leads to the false impression that no minors have been detained, according to the interviewee.[5]
A few Federal States have regulations in place for the detention of other vulnerable groups (such as elderly persons, persons with disabilities, nursing mothers, single parents),[6] but most do not have any special provisions for these groups and detain them in practice. The same applies to de facto detention at airport detention facilities, which is applied inter alia to pregnant women, victims of torture and persons with medical conditions. Civil society organisations supporting people detained in the German facilities report about elderly persons, persons with disabilities and persons with illnesses being detained.[7] According to the local Amnesty university student group, one pregnant person and one trans woman were detained in Darmstadt-Eberstadt in 2024. The trans woman was held in the men’s section, as there is no clear regulation governing the placement of transgender individuals in detention. Additionally, all interview partners highlighted the extremely high number of detained persons suffering from mental health problems.
Of the few people who come to us for counselling, around 90% are psychologically unstable – whether due to the detention itself, the circumstances of their arrest, or the fears they had to live with beforehand. An estimated 10–20% are given sedatives. Some individuals show clear psychological abnormalities that would actually require treatment – but this would also need to involve securing their living conditions, and that is not ensured in Germany. Women often suffer prolonged nervous breakdowns, crying for hours or even days. When young women are deported to countries like Romania, Bulgaria, or Croatia, even though their families have already been granted protection in Germany, they know exactly what awaits them: violence, threats, rape, homelessness. Women who are forced to return to their home countries have justified fears – but these are not recognised as grounds for asylum, for instance in the case of family feuds. All individuals undergo visible changes during detention: they lose weight, neglect themselves, self-harm, or develop health problems, including dental issues.[8]
While some Federal States provide for separate detention of women, others use the facilities of other Federal States – notably the detention facility of Ingelheim in Rhineland-Palatinate – and only detain men in their own detention facilities.[9] The local Amnesty university student group states usually only few women are detained in Darmstadt-Eberstadt and raises awareness for the issue that at times when there is only one women held in the facility, this leads to solitary confinement by default.[10]
[1] Federal Republic of Germany, Residence Act (AufenthG), available here.
[2] Federal Government, Reply to parliamentary question by The Left, 20/14042, 11 February 2025, available in German here.
[3] Community for all, 4 Jahre Abschiebeknast Hessen, July 2023, available in German at: https://bit.ly/3RLsmxS, 21.
[4] Flüchtlingsrat Niedersachsen, ‚Unbegleiteter minderjähriger Flüchtling seit 13 Tagen rechtswidrig in Abschiebungshaf‘t, Press release of 3 March 2020, available in German at: https://bit.ly/2YZedDC.
[5] ze.tt, ‚Eingesperrt ohne Straftat: So sind die Bedingungen in einem Abschiebegefängnis‘, 14 December 2019, available in German at: https://bit.ly/2T0KZ3g.
[6] Regulations regarding vulnerable groups can be found in the law on removal detention for Bremen (available in German at: http://bit.ly/3wlsJVD). In Hesse, the law (available in German at: http://bit.ly/3XvPOkv) requires that special attention be paid to the healthcare of particularly vulnerable persons. In Schleswig-Holstein, the respective law (available in German at: https://bit.ly/3Hn50KS) contains a provision on the detention of minors, which must be in compliance with Art. 37 Un Convention on the Rights of the Child. HesseNo specific provisions could be found in the laws and regulations of Berlin (available in German at: http://bit.ly/3H69Efg), Baden-Württemberg (available in German at: https://bit.ly/3HkMOBE), Brandenburg (available in German at: http://bit.ly/3Hl9z8I), Hamburg (available in German at: http://bit.ly/3HmWaNi), North Rhine Westphalia (available in German at: http://bit.ly/3QZ55b0), and Saxony (available in German at: http://bit.ly/3ZUSDNl). Bavaria and Rhineland Palatinate do not have a specific law or regulation on detention.
[7] Information provided by Jesuit Refugee Service Germany, Hilfe für Menschen in Abschiebehaft Hof e. V., Support PiA, Abschiebehaftberatung Nord via email and phone on March 2025.
[8] Information provided by Hilfe für Menschen in Abschiebehaft Hof e. V. via email on March 2025.
[9] Federal Government, Reply to parliamentary question by The Left, 19/31669, 4 August 2021, available in German at: https://bit.ly/4awfTGM, 23-25.
[10] Information provided by Support PiA via phone on March 2025.