A new approach to the so-called church asylum is being pushed by the Hessian state government, as the number of cases has increased significantly in the federal state. According to a paper prepared for the December 2024 meeting of the Interior Ministers’ Conference, which was reported by the “Spiegel”, more people are being accommodated in church asylum in Hesse who do not fall under the jurisdiction of the Hessian Foreign Office.
In September 2024, approximately 13% of deportations from Hesse failed due to church asylum, the document states. To improve the situation and reduce the existing “information deficit”between the federal states, the government wants the states to agree on a common approach.
A corresponding statement from the North Rhine-Westphalian Refugee Ministerium on the topic says that in the first nine months of 2024, 287 return flights were cancelled in the largest federal state due to church asylum. “This makes church asylum the top three cancellation reasons in North Rhine-Westphalia”the statement from Düsseldorf adds. The number of church asylum cases has increased nationwide in the past year, with a more than twofold increase in North Rhine-Westphalia from 2021 to 2023, the statement further reports.