BAMF to review Syrian protection status, single young men first
Germany's interior minister has said the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees will withdraw protection status from a growing number of Syrian nationals, and that the process will start with single young men.
Alexander Dobrindt said on Monday 21 September, at a retreat of his party's Bavarian state parliament group, that a request to leave Germany will "shortly" also go to single young men who could support themselves in Syria. He said the government is working to increase assisted returns alongside enforced ones.
The interior ministry confirmed the direction the same day. A spokeswoman in Berlin said a protection title can stand only as long as the need for protection exists, and that such titles would be reviewed over the medium term as the situation in Syria continues to stabilise. She added that it is not new for the Federal Office to have begun extending revocation work to Syrian cases.
The interior policy spokesman for the governing parliamentary group, Alexander Throm, set out where he wants the checks to begin: "Revocation checks should start with single young men on social assistance who are not working." He said people in work, such as doctors and nurses, would have the option of moving to a residence permit based on employment.
More than 500,000 Syrian nationals in Germany hold either refugee status under the Geneva Convention or subsidiary protection, and around 450,000 receive basic income support. More than 300,000 people from Syria have been naturalised and are not affected by any of this. Fewer than 10,000 have returned voluntarily since the war ended in December 2024.
What it means in practice: protection titles run for three years and have until now usually been extended. A revocation is decided case by case, and the Federal Office has to examine each file on its own, so this will not reach everyone at once. If a protection title is withdrawn, the local immigration office must then also revoke the residence permit before a person becomes required to leave the country.
If you are working, paying social insurance contributions and not claiming basic income support, ask your immigration office now about switching to a residence permit based on employment, before any review reaches your file. If a revocation notice arrives, the period for lodging an appeal is short, so get legal advice the same week.