The majority of Afghan nationals residing in Pakistan and awaiting relocation to Germany have rejected an offer from the federal government to relinquish their resettlement pledges in exchange for financial compensation, according to a report cited by Zeit.
Süddeutsche Zeitung reported that the Federal Ministry of the Interior contacted around 700 affected individuals, offering them several thousand euros to voluntarily withdraw from German admission programs. By the end of last year, only 167 had accepted the offer, while 357 rejected it outright. The remaining individuals were still undecided, according to the ministry’s response to a parliamentary inquiry from Green Party MP Schahina Gambir.
The acceptance rate is currently 23.85 percent.
The Interior Ministry made the offer in November, stating in a letter that anyone who accepted the payment would be permanently removed from the asylum and resettlement programs. The initiative was intended to ease pressure on admission procedures that had stalled for months. Depending on individual circumstances, the compensation reportedly amounted to several thousand euros.
Hundreds of Afghans earmarked for relocation to Germany remain in Pakistan. Following the Taliban’s seizure of power in Afghanistan in August 2021, Berlin pledged to resettle Afghans who had worked for the German Armed Forces or other German institutions, as well as people deemed particularly vulnerable, including women’s rights activists and human rights defenders.
After taking office in May, Federal Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt ordered a review of all asylum admission procedures. Under the new approach, only individuals with commitments under the Federal Asylum Program for Afghanistan or the local employment program are eligible to enter Germany, with pledges from other programs no longer considered legally binding. Many Afghans had already fled to Pakistan by that point and are now stranded there, unwanted by the Pakistani authorities, who are pressuring Berlin to sort out the issue.
According to the federal government, a total of 37,652 Afghan nationals had entered Germany through admission programs between May 2021 and Dec. 31, 2025.
AfD co-leader Alice Weidel ridiculed the results of the cash incentive scheme, writing on X, “The majority of Afghans in Pakistan are apparently rejecting the money offered by Berlin in exchange for ‘foregoing’ accepting refugees. This is the CDU’s ‘migration turnaround.’ We demand: an immediate halt to all Afghanistan resettlement programs and the revocation of all outstanding commitments!”
During the election campaign, the CDU vowed to stop flights from Islamabad bringing Afghan migrants to Germany. However, several flights have still landed since Chancellor Friedrich Merz took office. The party says this is largely due to prior commitments made to Afghans housed in reception centers in Pakistan and court rulings requiring those promises to be honored.
In a landmark ruling last July, the Berlin Administrative Court found that an admission granted to an Afghan woman and her 13 family members was legally binding and could not be revoked, ordering the Foreign Ministry to act immediately. The government later withdrew its appeal, making the judgment final.
Details of the cash-for-withdrawal scheme first emerged in November. According to the German Press Agency, letters sent via the German Society for International Cooperation offered Afghan nationals financial compensation, logistical support, transport assistance, medical care, and three months of psychosocial support if they agreed to abandon resettlement to Germany and either return to Afghanistan or move to a third country.
The Federal Ministry of the Interior, cited by Welt, said the voluntary offer was intended to “give those who cannot expect to be accepted in Germany a future.”
