In remarks made public on Sunday, the Protestant Church in Germany warned the news outlet Funke Media Group that more and more migrants in Germany are seeking safety in churches, primarily in response to threats of deportation.
Based on reports from regional churches, an EKD spokeswoman told the German DPA news agency, “The number of requests has risen significantly in many places as a result of increased pressure to deport, with requests sometimes more than quadrupling.”
However, she said, the records showed that many of the requests could not be fulfilled due to the huge demand, leaving many refugees without protection from government activities.
The number of deportations has already started to increase again under the outgoing government after a relatively low point in 2020, and the incoming government, led by Friedrich Merz, the conservative Christian Democrat candidate for chancellor, has declared its intention to deport more asylum seekers than in the past.
At the first quarter of 2025, 617 asylum seekers sought sanctuary at the church, up from 604 during the same period the previous year, according to the German Federal Office for Migration and Refugees.
For many years, German churches have provided temporary sanctuary to refugees under a unique privilege that is not based on the law but rather on the nation’s humanitarian and Christian traditions.
It is possible to temporarily prevent the deportation of refugees who seek sanctuary in churches so that their asylum cases can be re-examined and alternative legal options can be pursued.
In the majority of instances, the person requesting protection has already sought for asylum in another EU nation and is scheduled to be deported there; these are known as “Dublin cases.”
Source: DW News
