Dobrindt wants more Syrians to lose protection status
Federal Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt (CSU) plans to have the protection status of many more Syrians in Germany reviewed this autumn. According to media reports, he wants to instruct the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) to carry out more revocation reviews. In such a review, the BAMF checks whether the situation in Syria has changed enough since the person applied for asylum.
According to the CDU/CSU parliamentary group's interior spokesman, Alexander Throm, the reviews should start with young single men who receive social benefits. People who work, for example doctors or nurses, could switch to a residence permit for work. At the same time, the government wants to increase support for voluntary return. Currently, each adult who leaves voluntarily receives 1,000 euros.
Revocations are already rising. According to Mediendienst Integration, about 1,900 Syrians in Germany lost their protection status in the first half of 2026. The share of reviews that ended in revocation rose from 11 percent in January to 56 percent in June. At the end of June, 574,393 people from Syria had a protection status in Germany.
The UN refugee agency UNHCR says the conditions for revoking Syrians' protection are currently not met, because the security and human rights situation in Syria is not stable enough. Refugee councils expect many people to go to court against revocation decisions.
What to do: if you receive a letter from the BAMF about a review (Widerrufsprüfung), do not ignore it. Answer within the deadline and get advice from a migration counselling service or a lawyer straight away. If your protection is revoked, you can take the decision to the administrative court, but the deadline is short. A revocation does not automatically end your residence permit, because the foreigners' office (Ausländerbehörde) decides on that separately. If you work, ask whether you can switch to a residence permit for work, and if you have lived here for several years, check whether you can apply for a settlement permit (Niederlassungserlaubnis).