Germany plus 22 percent
More than a million asylum requests in Europe – Germany is the main country of destination
From: 01h20 | Reading time: 2 minutes
The Federal Department of Migration and Refugees recorded 325,801 asylum requests by the end of November
Source: image alliance/dpa/Sebastian Gollnow
The authorities do not expect any relaxation, on the contrary. In Germany, the increase in asylum applications is much higher than at EU level.
According to the European Union Asylum Agency (EUAA), the number of asylum seekers in Germany and Europe has increased enormously this year. In October alone, the municipality registered around 123 thousand requests, the highest monthly figure in seven years, said the director of EUAA, Nina Gregori, to the newspapers of the media group Funke.
The total number of asylum applications in the EU will be “well over one million” in 2023. Gregori does not expect any relaxation, on the contrary: “The world around us is increasingly unstable. The need for refugee protection will therefore not diminish in 2024 and beyond, but in some cases will even increase.” 2024 will be a “challenging year.”
According to the report, a total of around 937,000 applications were registered in the EU by the end of October – an increase of 22 percent compared to the same period last year. According to newspapers, in Germany alone the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (Bamf) recorded 325,801 asylum applications by the end of November – an increase of 52 percent compared to the first eleven months of the previous year. Germany remains the main destination country for asylum seekers in the EU, the EU Asylum Agency said.
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According to the EUAA, Germany accounted for 27 percent of all asylum applications in October – more than second and third placed countries France and Italy combined. The number of refugees from Ukraine also continued to increase. At the end of October, 4.16 million Ukrainians were registered in the EU and benefiting from temporary protection here – 320,000 more than in January, Gregori said. At the end of October, Germany was the EU's most important receiving country, with around 1.17 million Ukrainian refugees, while Poland was the second most important, with 957,000 Ukrainians.
“The agreed pact on asylum and migration sends a very clear message”
Gregori welcomed the recent agreement to reform the Common European Asylum System. At the same time, she dampened hopes for quick relief: “The new pact is not a panacea. No one should expect an immediate change, not even in the numerical evolution of asylum requests.”
But the agreed asylum and migration pact “sends a very clear message that the EU will take tough action against those who want to abuse refugee protection, including against smugglers”. At the same time, the EU is committed to creating a sustainable and, hopefully, future-proof, world-class protection system for those who really need it.
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