Icon: enlarge
Sign in front of the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees in Nuremberg
Photo: Christoph Hardt / imago images / Future Image
In the past year, significantly fewer people applied for asylum in Germany than in 2019. The Federal Ministry of the Interior announced on Sunday.
"The numbers are falling for the fourth year in a row," said Interior Minister Horst Seehofer (CSU), according to the dpa news agency.
The recent decline is therefore not solely due to the corona pandemic, which has made travel and border crossings much more difficult since spring 2020.
According to the ministry's figures, 102,581 people received their first asylum application in Germany last year.
This includes 26,520 applications for protection that affect children born in Germany under the age of one.
In 2019, the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (Bamf) received 142,509 first-time asylum applications, which corresponds to a decrease of almost 40,000 or 30 percent.
Criticism from Pro Asyl
According to the ministry, the main countries of origin of those seeking protection last year were: Syria with 25,373 applications, Afghanistan with 8051 applications and Iraq with 7355 applications.
The origin of 2,878 of the newly arrived asylum seekers is unclear.
Seehofer was positive about the lower numbers.
According to dpa, he said: »Our measures to control migration are working.
We are on the right track. «The refugee aid organization Pro Asyl, on the other hand, commented:» These low access numbers are a result of the rigorous sealing of Europe's borders. «The Greek-Turkish land border and the Hungarian and Croatian EU external borders have been systematically sealed off.
Those seeking protection would be stuck in misery in winter temperatures in Bosnia without any prospect of protection.
Shortly before Christmas, a fire destroyed the Lipa camp, which was intended as a transitional camp, and 2,000 refugees remained without shelter for days.
Icon: The mirror
sos / dpa