Over the past year, a noticeably larger number of refugees have returned to their home countries with financial assistance from Germany. According to a spokesperson from the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) speaking to the Funke Media Group newspapers, 16,576 refugees took advantage of the BAMF’s funding scheme in 2025 to travel either back to their country of origin or to another destination. In 2024 the figure was 10,358, and in 2023 it was 10,762, indicating a consistent level of voluntary departures supported by the federal government.
Since January 2025, the BAMF has again offered the funded exit option to Syria, a country that had been excluded from the program due to the ongoing civil war. By the end of December, 5,976 people had submitted exit applications to Syria, and 3,678 of them had already departed.
The so‑called REAG‑GARP programme is the federal initiative that subsidises voluntary returns of refugees to their home countries or to third countries. The program covers flight costs and provides a “start‑up aid” of €1,000 for each adult and €500 for children and young people. The BAMF spokesperson noted that Syria represents a “great interest” as a destination for subsidised return, but the high volume of applications is causing longer waiting times, according to the programme’s webpage.
In 2025, 4,432 participants of REAG‑GARP left for Turkey, while 1,334 left for Russia. Of the roughly 16,000 asylum seekers who voluntarily left Germany that year, 2,787 held a temporary residence permit, 6,394 were “obligatory for departure”, and 7,302 had a “stay authorization” – a status that is not protective but allows residence in Germany only for the duration of the asylum procedure.
The BAMF does not statistically record the number of protection seekers who have returned to their home countries either through state‑run funding programmes or on their own initiative.