Asylum Applications to Germany up 77 Per Cent Over 2022

Initial asylum claims in Germany are soaring, both month-on-month over the summer but also compared to the same period last year, with the nation experiencing a considerable 77.2 per cent rise in arrivals.

There have been almost 205,000 initial applications from would-be asylum seekers in Germany this year between January and August, the latest periods for which the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (Bamf) has published figures.

The total of 204,461 to date in this period in 2023 is a 77.2 per cent increase over the 115,402 recorded in January to August 2022, reports Die Welt. A University of Vienna academic has told Germany’s Tagespiegel that while it is hard to accurately predict migration numbers — especially as any number of foreign wars or revolutions could begin in the next five months, adding extra pressure on global northward migration — she believes it is conceivable there would be 300,000 applications this year.

Asylum applications continue to rise as the year goes on. There were 27,738 applications in August alone, which itself is up 17 per cent in two months over June.

Typically, the largest sources for these asylum applications profess to come from Syria and Afghanistan, but Turkey — a safe, wealthy, NATO-member state — is also in the top three for those seeking protection in Germany.

If asylum migration to Germany continues at this rate, 2023 could likely turn out to be a record year. As previously reported, 2022 was the highest number of asylum applications since 2016, even when excluding Ukrainian refugees who fall under their own distinct category. There were 217,774 asylum applications in total in Germany in 2022, a figure likely to be overtaken as soon as the next month’s data release by Bamf in 2023, on present trends.

Germany’s experience this year contributes to, and mirrors that of Europe as a whole, with reports this week revealing the European Union has seen asylum requests jump 28 per cent in 2023 so far. There have been 519,000 so far in the year for the bloc between January and June, with an estimated one million expected by year’s end, approaching the migrant crisis levels of 2015-16.