Millions of Syrians are returning home—but of the more than 900,000 living in Germany, very few have shown an interest in leaving, official figures show.
According to figures from the UN’s refugee agency UNHCR, reported by Welt, over 1.6 million Syrian refugees have returned since Bashar al-Assad’s regime was toppled in December 2024, most of them from neighboring countries: 634,000 from Turkey; 621,000 from Lebanon; and 284,000 from Jordan.
In the report, Germany is included in a category called “other countries”—with just over 6,000 returnees in total.
The Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) reports that only 3,678 Syrian migrants who had sought refuge in Germany returned home in 2025. BAMF—which is responsible for evaluating whether asylum seekers’ reasons for being granted asylum are valid—so far only evaluates individual cases of potential asylum revocation for Syrians, for example, for asylees convicted of serious crimes. The office told Welt a larger revocation effort would require a permanent stabilization of the situation in Syria and that the “economic and humanitarian situation in the country remains disastrous.”
Alexander Throm, CDU/CSU domestic policy spokesman in the Bundestag, said it’s time to “begin reviewing revocations of asylum decisions.” For the vast majority of Syrians, “the grounds for protection” have “ceased to exist,” he said.
“We should begin with young, single men who receive social benefits and thereby show that they are not integrated,” Throm said, pointing out that the federal government’s coalition agreement includes measures to encourage voluntary returns.
