- 350,000 people applied for asylum in Germany during 2023
BERLIN, Germany(LP Correspondent)-In 2023, Germany received 351,915 asylum applications, a 51.1% jump from the previous year.
Syrians made up the largest group of asylum-seekers with 104,561 requests, followed by Turks with 62,624 and Afghans with 53,582, according to Germany’s Federal Office for Migration and Refugees on Monday.
The government and the public are facing a huge political challenge as migration puts pressure on local housing resources.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who is under enormous pressure from the opposition and others to stem the tide of migrants, said that “there are too many arrivals.” Last year, Scholz and the 16 state governors reached a compromise on stricter measures to cut down the number of migrants entering the country, which included quicker asylum decisions, lower benefits for asylum-seekers and more federal assistance for the states and local communities handling the influx.
Germany has also accepted more than 1 million Ukrainians escaping from Russia’s war in their country. In the autumn, Germany set up temporary border controls at its frontiers with Poland, the Czech Republic and Switzerland. The country has been carrying out similar routine checks at its border with Austria since 2015. To further reduce the number of migrants in the country, the government has also been trying to speed up deportations of unsuccessful asylum-seekers and toughen the punishment for people smuggling migrants.
The numbers from last year are still far below the figures from 2015-16, when more than 1 million migrants came to Germany, mostly from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq. Nevertheless, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said that “the 2023 asylum numbers show that we need to maintain our course to limit irregular migration.” She said, “We protect those who are fleeing from war and terror. But those who do not need protection have to leave our country.”
