More people have sought protection in Germany last year with recognized status. Overall 3.17 million people were recorded seeking asylum in Germany by the end of 2023 according to the Central Register of Foreigners (AZR). These people are present in Germany citing international law, humanitarian, or political reasons.
The latest statistics have been issued by the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis). An increase of around 95,000 or 3% compared to the previous year has been observed for the number of registered protections.
Countries with the most asylum applicants in Germany
Nationals of Ukraine remained at the top position even though the percentage remained down to -3 compared to the previous year. Second to this seeking protection were Syrians with an addition of +6% compared to the previous year.
Asylum applications from Afghan nationals also increased to +13%. People of Iraq origin -5% and Turkish +51% remained at number 4 and 5th position respectively.
Together, these five nationalities made up almost three-quarters of all those seeking protection. These 5 countries account for more than three-quarters of the total numbers.
| Countries | Number of Asylum Seekers |
| Ukraine | 977,000 |
| Syria | 712,000 |
| Afghanistan | 323,000 |
| Iraq | 200,000 |
| Türkiye | 152,000 |
Approved application statistics
By the end of 2023, about 2.53 million people seeking protection had a humanitarian residence permit which is recognized protection status. It is 275,000 more than in the previous year (+12%). This increase is mainly due to the recognition of Ukrainian people seeking protection (+188,000).
Temporary and unlimited protection status
About 2.2 million people got the protection status temporary recognized status which is almost 87% of the whole number. On the other hand, 340,000 people got the unlimited recognized status (13%).
Temporary recognition status category
In Germany, according to Section 24 Residence Act, temporary protection is also recognized without an asylum procedure. Under this category, 83% (919,000) of the temporarily recognized protection seekers without an asylum procedure from Ukraine had this protection status at the end of 2023.
Details of the Asylum Seekers
The proportion of females remained at 49% and males at 51% from the recognized status holders of the protection-seeking people. Furthermore, the average age of these people was on average 32.2 years old. Almost 29% of those recognized as seeking protection were children and young people under the age of 18. About 69% were people of working age between 15 and 64 years.
A surge of asylum seekers was again seen in Germany last year. According to the Federal Office for Refugees and Migration (BAMF) report, Germany received 329,120 asylum applications in 2023. The number of people who resubmitted the asylum application (subsequent asylum application) remained at 22,795.
Complete story
Files from BAMF, Destatis, schengenvisa.news, Umer Rasib