Number of people required to leave the country and tolerated persons falls
In a recent interview with ARD, AfD leader Alice Weidel spoke of 215,000 Syrians who are currently in Germany and are required to leave the country. However, the official figures paint a somewhat more differentiated picture:
According to the German government, around 220,800 people were living in Germany without an official Residence permit as of December 31, 2024 - 178,512 people with a Tolerance permit and 42,296 people without a Tolerance permit.
Compared to the peak in 2022, this is a decrease of more than 80,000 people. The number of so-called tolerated persons - people whose deportation has been temporarily suspended for legal or humanitarian reasons - has fallen particularly sharply.
Their number fell from around 248,000 (2022) to 178,500. The number of people without a Tolerance permit who are directly required to leave the country also fell: from 56,000 to 42,000.
Why are the figures falling?
There are many reasons for this: on the one hand, many people who were previously required to leave the country now have legal residence status - for example, through a tolerated stay for education, employment, family reunification or the receipt of a humanitarian Residence permit.
On the other hand, the former Federal Government under Chancellor Olaf Scholz and former Interior Minister Nancy Faeser pursued a dual strategy: enforce deportations more consistently - but at the same time create measures to facilitate Residence permit, for example for persons entitled to subsidiary protection or well-integrated tolerated persons.
More deportations expected in 2025
The number of deportations is rising in parallel to the decline in the number of people required to leave the country: According to an answer from the Bundestag to a question from the Left Party, around 20,000 people were deported in 2024 - an increase compared to 13,000 in 2022.
In the first quarter of 2025 alone, there were 6,151 people, including 1,339 women and 1,118 minors. At the end of June 2025, there were already almost 12,000 people, according to dpa, which refers to data from the Federal Ministry of the Interior.
In the same period, there were just under 9,500 deportations in 2024. Extrapolated, the number could rise to almost 25,000 deportations in 2025 as a whole.
A total of 5,216 deportations were carried out by air, 913 by land and 22 by sea. Around a third of these were so-called Dublin transfers to other EU countries.
Focus on Syria and Afghanistan
Despite an increase in deportations, Syria and Afghanistan remain sensitive issues. Germany is currently not deporting people to Syria as the security situation is considered too dangerous. Nevertheless, there are increasing political voices calling for the return of Syrians - especially criminals. CSU Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt and CDU Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul are openly in favor of this.
The AfD has also submitted a motion to the Bundestag. In it, they call for a halt to the admission of Syrians as well as increased measures to promote the return of people to the country liberated from the Assad regime. The Bundestag will discuss this for the first time on Thursday, September 11, 2025.
However, deportations to Afghanistan have already been carried out again: The second return flight since the Taliban took power took off in July. On board were 81 men who, according to the Federal Ministry of the Interior, were convicted criminals.
