Berlin. The number of deportations has recently fallen slightly, but contrary to this trend, more people were sent back to Turkey this year. This is shown by the federal government's answer to a written question from the Left Party's domestic policy spokeswoman, Clara Bünger.
What also emerges from the data provided by the Federal Ministry of the Interior: deportations to Syria, especially of criminals, remain difficult, but are possible in individual cases. According to the information, there have been six deportations to the Arab country since the beginning of the year.
Of the 14,324 foreigners who were deported from Germany between the beginning of January and the end of September, 2,025 people were taken to Turkey. It took first place on the list of the most frequently destination countries, followed by Georgia with 883 deportees and Algeria, where there were 629 returns. Algerian citizens generally need a visa to enter Germany, while Georgians with a biometric passport are allowed to enter visa-free for short visits.
Compared to the same period last year, there was a decrease in deportations of around 18.9 percent. From January to September 2025, 17,651 deportations from Germany were carried out. In the same period in 2024, the number of deportations was about the same as this year.
One reason why fewer people have recently left Germany under duress is the fact that fewer people are now applying for asylum in this country. The number of people applying for asylum in Germany for the first time was significantly lower in the first half of the year with 39,646 initial applications than in the same period last year (72,818 initial applications).
This also means that Germany submits fewer takeover requests to other states in the European Union. These requests are always made when it turns out that, according to the rules of EU asylum law, another EU state is responsible for the application of a person seeking protection.
The number of returns to France fell significantly this year - after 842 deportations in the first three quarters of the previous year, there were 481 people who were forcibly brought to the neighboring EU country in January and September of this year. While 928 returns to Spain took place in the same period last year, this time Spain is not among the ten most important destination countries.
The number of German takeover requests to Spain in the first half of this year was 864 requests, well below the figure for the same period last year. In the first half of last year, 1,517 takeover requests were sent to Spain. The extent to which the opportunity created by the Spanish government a few months ago for working foreigners without a residence permit to legalize their status had an effect here cannot be statistically shown.
The decline in deportations does not mean that significantly fewer people required to leave the country left the country in the first three quarters of this year than in the same period in 2025. The number of state-sponsored voluntary departures has increased since then.
With state funding from the federal-state program REAG/GARP, a total of 12,263 people left Germany between January and September 2025, as a spokeswoman for the Federal Ministry of the Interior said upon request. A year later, according to preliminary figures from the ministry, 14,140 people decided to leave the country with such state support in the same period.
In addition, there are further departures without funding from the federal government or those with funding that is granted exclusively by the federal state in which the foreigner is resident.
From Bünger's point of view, more than 50 deportations per day are still far too many. She says: “Despite the decline, I receive a lot of news about family separations, deportations of children and young people who belong in school instead of on the deportation plane or deportations of sick people and people in need of care.” Among the people deported in the first three quarters of this year were more than 1,500 children and 380 teenagers.
Bünger also thinks it is wrong that the German authorities are sending people back to Syria or to Afghanistan, which is ruled by Islamist rulers. More than 200 men were deported to Afghanistan this year, the majority of whom had committed crimes in Germany. The collective deportations to Afghanistan are controversial, among other things, because the federal government coordinates with the Taliban, who were allowed to enter personnel to carry them out. According to the federal government, Germany deported three people to Iran between the beginning of January and the end of September.
In October there was a day of action under the motto “Nationwide against deportation madness”. It was organized by various initiatives and alliances. The protests, including at Leipzig/Halle, Munich and Frankfurt airports, were directed against deportations of rejected asylum seekers, detention pending deportation and the expansion of the necessary infrastructure.
