Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on April 8, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 24, 2026
Germany suspends its UN refugee resettlement programme as a new coalition government plans stricter immigration policies amid rising far-right support.
BERLIN (Reuters) -Germany has suspended admission of refugees via a U.N. resettlement programme, the interior ministry said on Tuesday, as a new coalition government likely to restrict immigration prepares to take office.
Migration has been a contentious issue in coalition negotiations between Friedrich Merz's conservative CDU/CSU bloc and the centre-left Social Democrats, which are expected to conclude within weeks.
The conservatives are advocating a stricter approach to asylum seekers in response to rising support for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party and several violent incidents involving refugees.
The two sides have struck a preliminary agreement to end voluntary federal admission programmes for refugees such as the U.N. programme - the only one currently active - and not to launch any new ones, according to a document seen by Reuters.
Germany has participated since 2016 in a European Union resettlement scheme that accepts refugees selected by the U.N. refugee agency, UNHCR. Most come from Turkey, Egypt, Jordan or Kenya, or from Libya via Rwanda.
The ministry said 4,711 people had arrived in Germany through the programme since 2024, out of the 13,000 refugees that Germany has promised the European Commission it will take in for 2024 and 2025 combined.
Despite the suspension, admissions that are already well advanced, with concrete commitments, will go ahead, a ministry spokesperson said.
(Reporting by Miranda Murray, Riham Alkousaa and Alexander Ratz; Writing by Rachel More; Editing by Friederike Heine and Kevin Liffey)
The main topic is Germany's suspension of the UN refugee resettlement programme due to upcoming changes in immigration policy by the new coalition government.
Germany is suspending the programme as the new coalition government plans to implement stricter immigration policies.
The key political parties involved are Friedrich Merz's conservative CDU/CSU bloc and the centre-left Social Democrats.
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