Migrants in Germany Fleeing Poverty Find Only a Ticket Home

Mr. Kleart’s application was the first to be processed, and the speedy conclusion — cutting a process to a few hours from what had been taking months — sent a clear signal to those who did not yet understand why they had been brought to the medieval town of Bamberg: Here, in a former United States military base in northern Bavaria, hope ends for those who came to Germany not to save their lives, but for a better life.

BAMBERG, Germany — When Hasani Kleart and 173 others were bused in from asylum homes across Bavaria, the first of about 1,500 migrants to move into newly converted army barracks, they had been full of excitement: freshly painted apartments, sprawling lawns, a state-of-the-art playground, even a basketball court.

Few paid attention to the sign written in German at the entrance: Arrival and Repatriation Facility.

Are they building a school for our children?” 22-year-old Mirela, who is from Kosovo and would give only her first name, asked hopefully as she explored the grounds with her husband, a builder, and her daughter.

But by lunchtime on their second day there, the news had spread. Mr. Kleart, a 20-year-old student from Albania, had been denied asylum that morning, just two hours after pleading his case. Soon he would be on a plane home.