Courts flooded with asylum claims: Dramatic increase of up to 120 percent

In the first quarter of 2025, courts across Germany were inundated with lawsuits. This was not due to an increasing number of crimes being committed, but rather because lawsuits against asylum decisions and summary proceedings were being filed more frequently. As the Bild newspaper reported , citing data from the higher administrative courts of all German states, the courts received 46,427 new lawsuits in the first months of the year—a 67 percent increase compared to the same period last year.

Lower Saxony recorded the highest increase. There, the number of appeals against asylum decisions and summary proceedings rose by 120 percent in the first quarter, from 2,226 to 4,887 cases. According to court data, the numbers in Saxony, Schleswig-Holstein, Saarland, andNorth Rhine-Westphalia have more than doubled. A decline is not currently foreseeable; quite the opposite. According to Bild, the statistics for April 2025 from Lower Saxony show a tripling of the number of appeals from 771 to 2,234 compared to the same period last year.

An improvement is not foreseeable, quite the opposite

But why are the courts being flooded with lawsuits right now? The Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) is primarily responsible for the chaos. In spring 2024, the Federal Ministry of the Interior announced that it would hire around 1,000 new full-time employees and invest 300 million euros. The goal: to speed up the review of asylum claims.

Apparently with success: The newly reorganized Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) sent out significantly more rejection notices. This triggered a flood of lawsuits from asylum seekers . While the BAMF now has more staff and more money, the coffers of the states and the respective courts are empty. There is a shortage of staff, and the piles of files are growing steadily.

Saxony-Anhalt's Senior Administrative Judge Julia Zirzlaff fears a worsening of the already dire situation: "If the number of asylum applications remains at this level or continues to rise, the number of cases will inevitably continue to rise with the existing staff. This would also have a negative impact on the processing times, both in the asylum area and in general procedures."

This dramatic increase has made the Association of German Administrative Judges even more concerned about the planned reform of the EU asylum system . The new reform proposes a significant reduction in asylum appeal procedures. Given the already rising number of cases, the association believes this is an unrealistic goal. Moreover, the Association of Thuringian Administrative Judges warns of a staff collapse.

The workload is already enough “for a whole year”

“Many federal states will not be able to complete asylum procedures within the planned six-month period,” said the association’s deputy chairwoman Caroline Bülow to the Bild newspaper.

Thomas Lehnart, head of the Thuringian Association of Administrative Judges, not only warns of a staff collapse, he also says: "In the administrative court in Weimar alone, we already have as much work on our plate for 2025 as we would for an entire year." The planned faster processing of asylum applications will then not be feasible in Thuringia anyway, says Lehnart.

The Common European Asylum System (CEAS) stipulates a six-month processing time for judicial asylum procedures. A goal that is impossible to achieve. A much more realistic approach is up to 24 months, says Thomas Lehnart. The Higher Administrative Court in Saxony currently estimates a processing time of around 16 months.