Asylum Ruling Appeals Hit New Record in Germany as Syrians Refuse to Go Home
8th September 2025
Germany is experiencing a new migration conundrum. While judges are overwhelmed by tens of thousands of new appeals against asylum decisions, only a handful of Syrians—fewer than 2,000 out of nearly one million living in the country—have requested official assistance to return to their homeland, despite the fall of Bashar al-Assad having been celebrated as the condition that would make their return possible.
The first half of 2025 brought a record number, 76,646 lawsuits by migrants initiated before administrative courts, more than in all of 2023 (71,885) and three-quarters of the 2024 level. Densely populated states such as North Rhine-Westphalia (13,304), Bavaria (11,412), and Lower Saxony (over 11,000) account for much of this surge.
The consequences are visible: in some regions, cases already exceed one and a half years of waiting. According to Sven Rebehn, president of the German Judges Association, the increase is due to the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees speeding up its asylum procedures, which multiplies the number of appeals.
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