Overview
- Saxony registered 5,189 asylum seekers in 2025, about half the 2024 total, while 5,942 Ukrainians sought protection under separate rules.
- Voluntary returns reached a record 1,588 last year, alongside 917 deportations, about one-third involving people classified as criminals, with destinations including Georgia, Turkey, Tunisia, Morocco and India.
- Roughly 64% of planned removals failed, commonly because people absconded, obtained medical attestations or last-minute court protection, and in some cases due to airline refusals.
- Armin Schuster proposes coercive detention for those refusing to leave, using regular prison places for deportation detention, obligating airline cooperation, and creating new return and secondary migration (Dublin) centers.
- SPD figures immediately criticized the prison proposal, as Schuster urges retaining border controls until EU asylum reforms take hold, with the GEAS framework expected to begin in June and many migrants reportedly transiting unregistered through Europe.