Almost 2,600 cases – increase in deportations from Berlin airport

Last year, 2,591 people were deported via Berlin's BER airport. With this increase of a good 15 percent compared to the previous year, BER remains one of the airports with the most deportations nationwide, as the Berlin-Brandenburg Deportation Observation Forum announced on Monday in its 2025 activity report.

During the reporting period, the forum observed and documented 28 of 37 collective deportations and 96 returns of individuals. The main destinations for the collective deportations were once again Moldova, Georgia and Serbia.

The forum also pointed out a lack of language training for migrants who were deported on scheduled flights accompanied by a doctor. Questions relating to the well-being of children were also discussed; such as nighttime pickups or the use of minors as translators. The forum identified picking up families with children at night as problematic.

Since the beginning of 2014, deportations of asylum seekers or foreigners who are required to leave the country have been accompanied at Berlin airports by an independent observer from the forum. In addition to the Federal Police as the enforcement authority and the authorities of the states of Berlin and Brandenburg involved in the deportation process, the Forum also includes the Protestant and Catholic churches, welfare associations, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), Amnesty International and Pro Asyl.