Evangelical church in Nuremberg grants asylum to Somali woman facing deportation to Italy
A 22-year-old Somali woman scheduled for transfer from Germany to Italy under Dublin asylum rules has received shelter in a Nuremberg church, preventing her scheduled deportation flight.
Sanctuary in Nuremberg
On 18 August 2026, 22-year-old Abdirisak Warsame Faduma entered church asylum at an evangelical church in Nuremberg after lawyers and advocates from the Matteo association moved her from a state accommodation facility. The organisation notified both the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) and the Bavarian Interior Ministry of her location. The intervention operates under a 24 February 2015 agreement between German federal authorities and Christian denominations that allows parishes to grant temporary humanitarian sanctuary. Association leaders stated that the shelter will protect her until German authorities cancel the transfer order or the statutory deportation window expires.
This establishes that churches, whether Evangelical, Catholic, or free, can grant asylum for humanitarian reasons to people in severe difficulty.
Journey from Somalia to Schweinfurt
Warsame left Somalia on her own to escape a forced marriage arranged by her father, travelling through Libya before crossing the Mediterranean Sea. She landed on the Italian island of Lampedusa on 27 February 2026 following a three-day crossing on an inflatable boat. After two days on the island, authorities transferred her to a facility near Milan's central station, where she spent four weeks in shared quarters without separate showers. She arrived in Germany on 31 March 2026 to reunite with family members in Schweinfurt, including her mother, brother, and three sisters, who had fled Somalia before 2008 during the civil war. Her siblings are enrolled in local institutions, with her sisters attending secondary school and her brother completing an information technology apprenticeship.
- Faduma lands on Lampedusa after crossing the Mediterranean from Libya by boat
- Faduma arrives in Germany to join family members living in Bavaria
- German authorities receive her formal application for asylum
- Nuremberg evangelical parish grants church asylum to halt scheduled expulsion
- Scheduled police transfer flight to Italy fails to take place
Transfer orders and the Dublin system
On 14 April 2026, Warsame filed a formal asylum application in Germany, leading immigration officials to match her records against the Eurodac fingerprint database. Under the Dublin Regulation, the European Union member state where an asylum seeker first enters the bloc remains responsible for assessing the claim. German authorities scheduled police to collect Warsame between 3:30 AM and 7:30 AM on 19 August 2026 for a flight to Italy alongside two other individuals. Because the parish shelter took her in at midday on 18 August, police could not execute the transfer from her former Bavarian accommodation.
I am very happy to be safe. Now the horrible time of fleeing is over.
Broader diplomatic dispute over transfers
The standoff over Warsame's deportation coincides with broader tensions between Berlin and Rome regarding the return of asylum seekers. In 2025 alone, European Union member states submitted 24,000 Dublin transfer requests to Italy. Italian officials have contested German return procedures, calling for compensation that factors in rescue operations conducted by German-flagged non-governmental organisation vessels in the Mediterranean. Concurrently, Switzerland announced plans to resume gradual Dublin transfers to Italy in late August 2026, having booked initial commercial flights after discussions with Rome. Under German administrative procedures, an open church asylum declaration maintains legal visibility without triggering the extended 30-month transfer deadline applied to untraceable individuals.
