Migration | Church asylum dispute between Hamburg and Berlin continues to simmer

The Left Party faction of the Hamburg Parliament has intervened in the dispute between Hamburg's and Berlin's heads of government over three Afghans sheltered in a Berlin church congregation . " Peter Tschentscher is pouring oil on the fire in which the AfD and others want to burn down the right to asylum and humanity," said faction leader Heike Sudmann in an Instagram video. "The mayor of Hamburg is not serving the rule of law, but the right." The Left Party politician warned that the victims face death if deported to their homeland because they have converted to Christianity.

Background: Last year, a group of Afghan men between the ages of 30 and 54 fled their homeland to Sweden and applied for asylum there. According to reports, in the spring of 2025, the men first traveled to Hamburg, and finally, a few days ago, applied for church asylum at a Berlin congregation – which they were granted, much to the annoyance of Hamburg Mayor Peter Tschentscher (SPD).

The men were to be returned from Hamburg to Sweden because, according to the EU's Dublin Agreement, the state in which refugees first entered the territory of the community of states is responsible for processing asylum applications.

However, the Berlin police have so far failed to comply with the Hamburg Interior Ministry's request for assistance to remove the three Afghans from church asylum. The Hamburg police initially wanted to send a task force to Berlin themselves. The Hanseatic city's Interior Ministry ultimately declined.

"Peter Tschentscher is pouring oil on the fire in which the AfD and others want to burn the right to asylum and humanity."

Heike Sudmann Co-Chair of the Left Party in the Hamburg Parliament

In a letter to Berlin Mayor Kai Wegner (CDU) that was apparently unusually harsh in its choice of words, Tschentscher expressed outrage, according to media reports, over the "systematic abuse of church asylum" in which "people are being admitted into church premises whose right to remain has already been reviewed under the rules of church asylum and whose obligation to return to another EU member state has been legally established." The "cooperation" between church congregations and the Berlin police, he said, is preventing the "enforcement of law and order." The thwarting of the deportation by Berlin authorities is a "severe blow to the rule of law" and "unacceptable."

As "Spiegel Online" reported on Monday, the Berlin head of government clearly criticized Tschentscher's "tone" in his reply – and emphasized that the political directive in the capital was to "respect church asylum."

The Hamburg Interior Ministry told "nd" on Wednesday that the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) had "intensively" examined the hardship application submitted by the church congregation and rejected it. However, despite an agreement reached between BAMF and the major churches in 2015 and a written request from the Hamburg Office for Migration in May, the church asylum was not terminated. Rather, the congregation—which is, however, an independent one—has announced that it will continue the application. "This prevents the application of European law," agency spokesperson Daniel Schaefer told "nd." It should also be emphasized that two of the three individuals had already been deported and were therefore illegally residing in Germany.

"According to the information available to us, only convicted criminals are currently at risk of being deported from Sweden to Afghanistan."

Daniel Schaefer Spokesperson for the Hamburg Interior Ministry

Church asylum is a special privilege tolerated by the state that allows congregations to temporarily protect people from deportation. The goal is to obtain a new review of the case by the immigration authorities and gain time to exhaust all legal remedies.

According to information from the Hamburg Interior Ministry, the Hamburg Office for Migration received a total of 111 notifications of church asylum in 2024. These were all so-called Dublin cases. According to agency spokesperson Schaefer, the individuals concerned do not have to fear deportation to their country of origin, but only to the relevant EU member state.

"According to the information available to us, only convicted criminals are currently threatened with deportation from Sweden to Afghanistan," the spokesperson told "nd." However, the men in church asylum in Berlin have not committed any crimes. "Incidentally, Germany has recently deported significantly more convicted criminals to Afghanistan than Sweden," Schaefer noted. This was most recently the case in July.

Since last year , authorities in several German states have repeatedly violated the church asylum they previously respected and forcibly removed people from parish premises, including in Hamburg. At the same time, the number of people seeking refuge in parishes has risen sharply, as increasing numbers fear deportation.