Berlin – Germany’s Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt announced on Thursday that his ministry intends to start negotiations with the Syrian government to enable the deportation of Syrian refugees who have been convicted of committing criminal offenses.
Speaking to the German newspaper Focus, Dobrindt said:
“”It is obvious that there are two other extremely large challenges that remain unresolved: returns to Syria and Afghanistan. There are currently no agreements with either country.”
So far, Germany does not have a repatriation agreement with Damascus. Dobrindt confirmed that there is ongoing contact with the Syrian government to explore a deal but stressed that no concrete results have been reached yet.
Read also: Germany Grants Citizenship to 83,150 Syrians in 2024
The talks, he said, would also extend to Afghanistan, as Germany seeks ways to return Afghan refugees with criminal records. Berlin has been using third-party intermediaries to negotiate with the Taliban government, but Dobrindt said that this approach “cannot remain a permanent solution.”.
The interior minister argued that the number of new refugees Germany accepts each year should be far lower than the current figure of about 200,000, noting that the country’s ability to integrate newcomers has clear limits.
Germany currently hosts over “600,000 asylum seekers reported in the past two years. In addition, there are 1.2 million Ukrainians in the country,” and that “A country’s capacity for integration naturally has its limits.” added the Interior Minister.
Tighter Rules on Family Reunification
Just last week, the German Bundestag approved a law suspending family reunification for some categories of refugees, except for rare humanitarian emergencies.
The new law, supported by 444 MPs and opposed by 135, applies to refugees with “subsidiary protection” status, meaning they do not qualify for full refugee rights under the Geneva Convention but cannot safely be returned to their home countries due to threats of torture, execution, or inhumane treatment.
Read more: Who Is Affected by Germany’s Decision to Suspend Family Reunification?
These refugees will now be barred from bringing close family members, such as spouses, minor children, or parents of minors, to join them in Germany for at least two years.
The new law was introduced by Minister Dobrindt, who argued it would help crack down on human trafficking networks that exploit family reunification pathways. He said the measure could reduce migration by around 12,000 people a year and ease the strain on public services.
Germany has hosted more than a million refugees since 2015, many fleeing the Syrian civil war and the war in Afghanistan. Deportations to Syria have been effectively frozen for years due to human rights concerns under President Bashar al-Assad’s government.
