New asylum applications: Highest value since September 2016
The number of new asylum seekers in Germany reached 31,887 in October this year, the highest figure since 2016. The last time the number of first-time applications was higher was in September with more than 70,000, according to a spokesperson for the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (Bamf) in Nuremberg.
So far in 2023, 267,384 initial applications for asylum have been received. This means that 2023 will also be the year with the most asylum applications since the record year of 2016. Back then, 722,370 first-time applications for asylum were made.
Where do most applicants come from?
According to the Federal Office's statistics, most asylum applicants in 2023 have so far come from Syria with 83,336, followed by Turkey with 45,086 and Afghanistan with 43,958.
Alexander Throm, domestic policy spokesperson for the CDU/CSU parliamentary group in the Bundestag, criticized: "This massive migration crisis was foreseeable for a long time, and yet the traffic light government never took any countermeasures." The development will in all likelihood continue next year, "as even the Chancellor's decisions will not change anything," said the CDU politician.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) had worked out a compromise with the minister presidents of the federal states which, among other things, aims to reduce the incentives for asylum seekers. In future, the federal government will pay a lump sum of 7500 euros per asylum seeker per year, rather than the current total of 3.7 billion euros.
In light of the high number of asylum applications, discussions about migration policies have intensified. The German government is now considering revising its asylum policy to address the ongoing migration situation, as the number of new asylum applications continues to escalate, approaching the record-breaking figures of 2016.
Source: www.dpa.com
