Only about one in ten rejected asylum applicants who file a challenge against a pending deportation succeeds before German administrative courts, the news magazine Focus reports, citing a survey of all 16 federal states. On average, 10.4 % of such claims were granted last year. The Saarland had the highest success rate at 19.5 % (110 of 564 cases), followed by Thuringia at 17.3 %. Most of the litigants are refugees whose applications were denied by the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF), meaning they have no right of stay in Germany. They sue in an attempt to stop imminent deportation, placing immense pressure on the courts.
Research by the magazine shows that asylum proceedings now average twelve months – twice as long as they should be. The swell of asylum lawsuits is the main cause of these delays. In Baden‑Württemberg, for example, they accounted for 74.2 % of all new entries in the first three quarters of 2025; Rhineland‑Palatinate 66 %; Lower Saxony again 74.2 %; and Bavaria 59.8 %.
The Association of German Administrative Judges expects the number of cases to rise further, at the expense of other proceedings. The key factor is the increasing rejection of Syrian asylum seekers, a trend that has intensified since the civil war effectively ended with the fall of the Assad regime.
The CDU says urgent action is needed. “When only a small fraction win while the bulk of cases block the courts, the task is clear: We must speed up proceedings to relieve our judiciary” Union faction vice‑chairman Günter Krings told Focus. He added that reforms would be “consistent with the principles of our rule‑of‑law system”. Krings calls for faster, digitally supported asylum adjudication even within administrative courts and for stronger cooperation obligations on the part of claimants, to prevent cases from dragging on for years and effectively creating a provisional right of stay.
