Top German court insists state must check individual Afghan visa cases

The German government will have to assess visas for Afghans on a case-by-case basis despite having scrapped a special admissions programme, after a top Constitutional Court ruling on Friday, reported dpa.

The individual concerns of the foreign national affected must be acknowledged, the highest German court in Karlsruhe said.

Specifically, the case concerned the "Human Rights List" admission programme which the government has already wound down.

The arrival or deportation of Afghans regularly hits the headlines in Germany, where migration is a highly sensitive political topic.

The plaintiff was an Afghan woman who had applied for entry visas for herself and her two young sons and is currently in Pakistan.

They received an admission commitment from Germany in 2021, which was withdrawn in December 2025. The Higher Administrative Court in Berlin-Brandenburg denied that there was an entitlement to the visas.

The Federal Constitutional Court has now overturned that decision. The lower court had misjudged the scope of the general constitutional prohibition of arbitrariness stemming from Germany's constitution, known as the Basic Law.

"The Federal Ministry of the Interior's declaration of revocation of December 2025 does not satisfy the requirements of the prohibition of arbitrariness," the court said.

The court therefore referred the matter back to the Higher Administrative Court, which will have to decide - if necessary by way of an interim decision - on the applications.

According to the Constitutional Court judges, the Higher Administrative Court will have to assume that under the constitution Germany is obliged to continue supporting the woman and her children in Pakistan until a visa is issued or until the Interior Ministry issues a constitutionally compliant declaration that the admission programme does not apply.

Until then, the German state must continue to work with the Pakistani government to ensure that the plaintiffs are not arrested and not deported to Afghanistan, it said.

"I'm really happy today. I can hardly describe how relieved I am," the Afghan plaintiff told dpa after the decision through an interpreter. She is currently in the city of Peshawar in northern Pakistan. "It was a very long, agonizing wait," the woman said.

According to the Society for Civil Rights (GFF), the current lawsuit is one of 31 constitutional complaints filed in a class-action complaint via the GFF. The association stated in advance that the decision could "change the fate of around 400 other Afghans."

According to the GFF, those affected are living in Pakistan in German-operated shelters and awaiting entry into Germany.

"If the ruling is negative, they face deportation to Afghanistan and, consequently, imprisonment, torture, and death," the GFF said. The petitioner in this specific case is particularly at risk from the Taliban due to her advocacy for women's rights in Afghanistan.

Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt said the ruling did not require any immediate action by the government. His ministry would await the outcome of the pending proceedings before the Higher Administrative Court before deciding on any further steps, he added.