EASO Director Nina Gregori told the “Funke Mediengruppe” at the weekend that around 40 percent more asylum applications had been made this August than in August 2020. “We are almost at the level of the time before the corona pandemic in Europe, what concerns the number of asylum applications, “said Gregori.
The head of EASO said that around 10,000 asylum applications were submitted by Afghan nationals alone in the EU in August 2021. Some of the applications, however, are accounted for by the evacuees who had come through the Kabul airlift. Afghans who had lived in Europe for some time now also applied for asylum again, said Gregori.
Capacity in the Balkans
Hundreds of thousands of Afghans sought refuge in Afghanistan’s neighboring countries. “We have to prepare for a difficult situation of the migration movement from Afghanistan to Europe,” warned Gregori. Your authority is working closely with the EU Commission and the authorities of the EU member states and is building up reception capacities in the Balkans, for example. In addition, a resettlement program for Afghanistan to the EU is being prepared.
In Germany, too, the number of asylum applications has risen again this year. As the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) shows in its statistics, the authority had received 100,278 initial applications by the end of September. That is 35.2 percent more than in the same period of the previous year, which was, however, strongly influenced by the corona pandemic, the closed borders and the extensive cessation of air traffic. From 2016 to 2020 the numbers had steadily decreased.
Poland defends border fence
Poland defended the construction of a barbed wire fence on the border with Belarus over the weekend. “If it weren’t for the fence and good cooperation between soldiers and border guards, then we would have a migration crisis like 2015,” tweeted Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak at the weekend.
The national conservative government plans to replace the fence with a permanent fixture. On Friday, a total of 592 attempts to illegally cross the border between Belarus and Poland were registered, Warsaw said.
