Around 329,000 people made an initial application for asylum in Germany last year – around 50 percent more than in the previous year, as the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (Bamf) announced on Monday in Nuremberg. The more than one million refugees from Ukraine who have come to Germany since the war began at the end of February 2022 are not included in the current statistics because they do not have to apply for asylum. In view of the numbers, the opposition called for a change in asylum and integration.
“The asylum numbers for 2023 show that we must consistently continue our course to limit irregular migration,” said Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD). The CDU/CSU parliamentary group in the Bundestag, however, once again criticized the traffic light coalition’s asylum policy. “The federal government cannot get the migration crisis under control,” said the deputy parliamentary group leader, Andrea Lindholz (CSU). “Despite the overburdening of the municipalities, the traffic light is sticking rigorously to its projects such as making it easier for naturalization and is thus constantly creating new incentives for further illegal migration.”
Number of asylum applications in Germany increased significantly in 2023
Last year, a total of almost 352,000 people applied for asylum in Germany – more than ever since 2016. At that time, however, there were more than twice as many. According to Bamf, 23,000 of the asylum applications last year were follow-up applications. A follow-up application is when a person submits a new application after a rejected or withdrawn asylum application.
Most asylum applications came from people from Syria (104,561), Turkey (62,624) and Afghanistan (53,582). People continued to flee violence and serious human rights violations from Syria and Afghanistan, as a spokesman for the international refugee agency UNHCR in Germany explained. “In addition, it is not unusual for the causes of flight to take effect with a considerable delay because people first seek refuge in the neighboring country, but often do not find the security they need there.” A small part then flees further.
Sources:, DPA.
Source: Stern
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