A Berlin court ruled on Tuesday that Germany’s conservative government must resettle an Afghan family stranded in Pakistan after the de facto suspension of a programme to accept Afghans in danger.
This decision is another blow to Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who advocates a sharp reduction in the number of refugees. After Merz took office as federal chancellor, his government effectively shut down the programme to evacuate vulnerable Afghans who were left in danger after the Taliban came to power in 2021. As a result, around 2,400 Afghans who Germany had already promised to grant asylum remained in Pakistan awaiting departure.
As stated in the court ruling, Germany had assumed “legally binding obligations that are final and irrevocable,” and the plaintiffs “provided convincing evidence of the threat of deportation to Afghanistan, where their lives and health are in serious danger.”
The plaintiffs in the case are an Afghan woman who previously held positions as a law teacher and deputy chair of an election commission, together with her family. They are awaiting departure to Germany from Pakistan along with representatives of vulnerable groups — human rights defenders, LGBTQI+ activists and other people under threat from the Taliban. It is unclear whether this decision will set a precedent for other similar cases.
The flow of refugees to Germany has declined amid Chancellor Merz’s policy of cutting social spending. Earlier, German media, citing a confidential European Commission report, reported that the number of asylum applications in Germany in the first six months of the year had fallen by 43% compared to the same period in 2024. As a result, Germany lost its leading position among European countries in terms of the number of asylum applications for the first time in recent years, falling to third place. Spain (76,020 applications) and France (75,428) took first and second place, respectively.
