Migration researcher Gerald Knaus has fundamentally criticized the policy of returns for asylum seekers at German internal borders, a measure originally implemented a year ago by Federal Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt (CSU).
According to Knaus speaking to the “Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland” the filing of asylum applications in Germany has plummeted compared to 2024. However, he argues that this historical drop is not due to domestic changes in Berlin’s policy. Instead, the decline is primarily linked to the developments in Syria, particularly the fall of Bashar al-Assad in December 2024, and the subsequent reduction in Syrian refugees across the entire European Union. Knaus noted that in the years preceding 2024, Germany and Austria alone had sheltered 80 percent of all Syrian refugees in the EU, and these two countries are currently experiencing the effects of the decrease the most.
The scientist argued that instead of leveraging this positive trend as an opportunity to establish a sustainable and humane way to manage irregular migration into the EU, the government has focused on merely symbolic border measures since May 2025. These actions include forced returns to countries such as Austria, Poland, and Switzerland. According to Knaus, this measure-which was notably demanded by the AfD in 2015 across all political parties-is fundamentally illegal under European law, unsustainable, and ineffective despite the considerable effort put into it.
