By Miranda Murray and Markus Wacket
BERLIN, July 24 (Reuters) - Germany’s top court ruled on Friday that the government could not simply cancel an entire swathe of resettlement places promised to Afghans, and that each case must be considered individually.
The Constitutional Court backed a complaint by an Afghan mother and her two sons who had been selected in 2021 for admission to Germany under a “human rights list” set up by the previous government after the Taliban returned to power.
The decision by the current interior ministry to end the scheme in December 2025, voiding about 640 such promises without examining the individual cases, breached a constitutional ban on arbitrary state action, it said.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s government imposed tougher controls when it took power last year, as support for the anti-immigration AfD party surged in the wake of former Chancellor Angela Merkel’s decision to admit around 1 million asylum seekers from countries including Syria and Afghanistan.
The admission programmes have been politically contentious, with security officials repeatedly raising concerns that some applicants’ identities could not be conclusively verified or that false information had been provided.
Human rights groups, meanwhile, have accused the ministry of trying to undermine admissions for vulnerable Afghans.
RIGHTS GROUP WELCOMES RULING
The government retains broad discretion over whether to admit foreigners under Germany’s residence law and may still decide not to admit the complainants, the court said.
However, it said any reversal of a previous commitment must take account of the individuals’ circumstances.
The ruling sends the case back to Berlin’s higher administrative court for reconsideration.
The interior ministry is now awaiting that court’s decision, a spokesperson said.
The Afghan woman and her family are currently staying in Pakistan, where they have been receiving support funded by Germany.
The court ruled that Berlin must continue supporting them in Pakistan until visas are issued or the ministry makes a new decision that is compliant with the constitution.
Germany’s Society for Civil Rights, which developed the model constitutional complaint on which the woman’s case was based, welcomed the ruling.
“This is good news for fundamental rights, but it is not enough,” lawyer Mareile Dedekind said in a statement.
“Germany must finally bring those seeking protection to safety from torture and death.”
The rights group said that around 30 similar cases were still pending before the Constitutional Court.
(Reporting by Kirsti Knolle, Markus Wacket and Miranda Murray; Editing by Alison Williams)
