In 2025, the EU has returned asylum seekers to Germany in only a few cases despite numerous requests. The Bundestag recently transposed the Common European Asylum System (GEAS) into German law to combat secondary migration. Federal states can now establish centers for deportable refugees.
The European Union is failing to return asylum seekers under the Dublin Regulation, which stipulates that the first country of entry is responsible for the procedure. According to the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF), Germany made 35,942 transfer requests to other EU states in 2025; 23,912 were approved, but only 5,377 asylum seekers were actually transferred. Italy, for example, accepted just one out of 6,229 cases. In comparison, the rate was even lower in 2024: of 74,583 requests, only 5,827 transfers occurred.
Reasons for the failures include missed deadlines, impossible conditions, and court rulings questioning minimum standards in other states. Conversely, other countries made 16,530 requests to Germany in 2024, of which 10,512 were approved but only 4,865 implemented.
On Friday, the Bundestag transposed the Common European Asylum System (GEAS) into national law. This allows the 16 federal states to establish secondary migration centers to house asylum seekers who have protection status from other EU states or for whom another state is responsible under Dublin rules. Deportable adult refugees are barred from leaving these centers for twelve months; children and their guardians face nighttime restrictions.
Alexander Throm (CDU), the Union parliamentary group's interior policy spokesman, demanded: "We expect all federal states to now set up such centers; this is a responsibility and a lesson from the Solingen attack." In that incident in August 2024, a Syrian asylum seeker who was supposed to be returned to Bulgaria killed three people.
Critics like the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD) view the facilities as prison-like. The federal states are responding hesitantly: North Rhine-Westphalia (Greens) highlights open questions on EU cooperation; Bremen (SPD) questions the need; Lower Saxony (SPD) requires proof of added value; Bavaria (CSU) will review once prerequisites are met. Brandenburg and Hamburg already operate such centers on the initiative of former Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD).
