The number of asylum applications in Germany fell by 30% in 2020 compared to 2019, the Interior Ministry announced on Sunday January 10, after a year marked by the closure of borders and the Covid-19 pandemic.
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German authorities registered more than 76,000 first asylum applications last year, down 31.5% from 2019. Most of the applicants are from Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq and Turkey.
In addition, 26,520 other asylum applications, filed for children under one year of age born in Germany to non-German parents, for a total of 102,581 applications in 2020. Around 37,800 people have obtained refugee status in the same period. year.
German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer estimated that the nearly one-third drop in demand could be partially explained by the pandemic, which caused a drop in international travel, and border closures, especially in the spring. .
But for the minister, conservative and in favor of tighter border control, this decline, which has continued for four years, "
shows (also) that our measures to control immigration are working
".
Five years ago, the opening of the country's doors decided by Chancellor Angela Merkel during the European migration crisis led to around 400,000 asylum applications in 2015, then 700,000 in 2016.
The decision to authorize again, from January 2021, deportations to a Syria devastated by war had been strongly criticized by associations, despite the government's assurance that only those it considers "
dangerous
" will be affected.
".