Federal states currently lack the necessary temporary travel documents from the federal police to deport Syrians who are legally required to leave the country. According to reporting by “Die Welt am Sonntag”, citing security officials in both the federal government and the states, the federal police headquarters in Potsdam-an office subordinate to Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt (CSU)-could neither confirm nor deny the circulating reports.
Officials confirmed that, as of the end of March, roughly 11,100 Syrian nationals in Germany were identified as being mandatory deportees. This marks a significant development, as since 2011, not a single one of the million Syrian asylum arrivals had been repatriated. The first four deportations to Syria, occurring in December 2024 and January 2025, took place under Minister Dobrindt, fulfilling a promise made by the coalition partners (CDU/SPD) in the coalition agreement to remove Syrian nationals, starting with criminal elements and security risks.
The complexities of repatriation were detailed by the Bavarian Ministry of the Interior, which noted that the current organized return process differs significantly from regular deportations because the federal government must lead the entire effort-a process that includes securing necessary travel documents from the country of origin-to establish viable repatriation routes.
Further highlighting institutional hurdles, Roman Poseck, the Interior Minister of Hesse (CDU), stated that none of the 533 mandatory deportees in his state can currently be repatriated due to the fact that Syria has not issued the required substitute travel documents for return in 2026. Poseck expressed confidence that his state was preparing for regular deportations and urged the federal government to create the necessary preconditions through direct dialogue with the Syrian government.
The scope of migration remains high, with 3,850 asylum applications filed by Syrians in Germany through the end of April this year. Separately, documentation obtained by the newspaper points to increasing irregular movements via air routes. A confidential report from the Joint Analysis and Strategy Centre on Illegal Migration dated February indicates that since Syrian airports were re-linked to international flight traffic in 2025, ongoing smuggling via air has been observed. This has been noted specifically through direct flights by European carriers such as Dan Air and Air Mediterranean into Romania or Greece. Furthermore, the internal migration report suggested that, following reconnaissance missions, Lufthansa was already in the concrete planning stages of establishing direct flights to Germany.
