Afghan nationals board a bus as they arrived in Germany from Pakistan at Hannover Airport, after legal and diplomatic pressure pushed Germany to resume a scheme that allows the entry of vulnerable Afghans, in Hannover, Germany, 1 September 2025;
Credit: Reuters/Christian Mang
BERLIN, (Reuters) - On Friday 24 July 2026, Germany's top court ruled that a blanket cancellation of promised places for Afghans in a special intake programme was arbitrary and must be reconsidered case by case.
The Federal Constitutional Court backed a complaint by an Afghan mother and her two minor sons, who had been told in 2021 they would be admitted to Germany under the "human rights list" scheme.
The judges said the Interior Ministry's December 2025 order voiding about 640 such promises without looking at each person breached the constitutional ban on arbitrariness.
