Germany 60% Increase in Number of Asylum Applications

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• In November, the BAMF approved 35,316 initial asylum applications, bringing the year's total to 304,581.
• The Federal Office completed 242,185 asylum procedures throughout the year.
• From January to November 2023, Germany recorded 325,801 asylum seekers, comprising 304,581 initial applications and 21,220 subsequent applications.

The Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) approved 35,316 initial asylum applications last month; the cumulative figure for the year reached 304,581 initial asylum applications.

According to the same source, the Federal Office completed 242,185 asylum procedures during the year.

From January to November 2023, the total number of asylum seekers in Germany amounted to 325,801 individuals, encompassing 304,581 initial applications and 21,220 subsequent applications.

This figure reflects a 60.3 per cent surge compared to the corresponding period in the preceding year, when there were 189,998 initial applications. Such data also show that a total of 21,287 of the initial applications in 2023 pertained to children born in Germany who were under the age of one year.

During the same period, the Federal Office decided on 242,185 initial and follow-up applications; the overall protection rate was 51.8 per cent.

The Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF)

Among asylum applications processed, refusals were issued for 55,979 individuals, and 60,762 procedures were categorised as “other procedural solutions”, including Dublin procedures and termination of procedures due to withdrawal of asylum applications.

The average duration for initial and subsequent applications from January to November 2023 for the federal territory was 6.8 months. The annual procedure, including all decisions made on applications submitted during the last 12 months, averaged 4.2 months.

As of the end of November 2023, the number of pending proceedings reached 232,810.

During the same month, the BAMF received a total of 37,140 asylum applications, comprising 35,316 initial applications and 1,824 subsequent applications. As a result, the number of initial asylum applications saw a significant increase of 10.8 per cent compared to the previous month.

At the same time, the Federal Office reached decisions on the asylum applications of 27,970 individuals, marking an increase from the previous month’s 22,998 and the month before, which recorded 18,586 decisions.

The surge in Turkish asylum seekers to Germany has been remarkable, witnessing a staggering 200 per cent increase in applications compared to 2022. This places them as the second-largest group seeking asylum in Germany, following Syrians.

The period between January and October 2023 saw a total of 286,638 asylum applications in Germany, encompassing both initial (267,384) and subsequent (19,254) submissions. The figure represents a substantial growth of 67.5 per cent compared to the same period in the previous year, during which 159,669 initial applications were recorded.