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.
This increase is immense as the country had fewer applications received in 2022 which were 217,774.
Migrants from Syria, Türkiye, and Afghanistan topped the list, and together numbers reached 215,386. Applicants from Syria alone counted one-third of the total applications submitted.
Countries considered safe such as Russia and Georgia surprisingly also had a huge number of asylum seekers last year in Germany.
According to the BAMF statistics, from 1953 to 2003, overall, 6.8 Million asylum applications have been submitted. Till 1989, these were merely 0.9 Million. After that, till 2003 they boomed to 5.9 million. Furthermore, most of these are even between 2015 to 2020 time period.
Decision on asylum applications
Out of all submitted applications, the German government made decisions on 261,601 initial and follow-up applications; the overall protection rate was 51.7 percent. The asylum applications of 61,778 people were rejected. On the other hand, 64,546 application procedures were for so-called other procedural settlements (e.g. Dublin procedures or discontinuation of procedures due to withdrawal of the asylum application).
Faster decisions on the new applications
Germany usually needs more time to process the asylum applications. But 2023 was exceptional as far as the results and processes of the new applications are concerned. With the entry into force of the “Act to Accelerate Asylum Court Procedures and Asylum Procedures” on January 1, 2023, there were implemented union law requirements regarding procedural deadlines in the asylum procedure.
The decisive factor for calculating the duration of the procedure is now the point in time at which Germany became responsible for the procedure.
List of countries whose citizens submitted asylum applications
Following is the list of the top ten as per the country of origin for the asylum seekers
| Nationality | First asylum application | Second asylum application | |
| 1. | Syria | 102,930 | 1,631 |
| 2. | Türkiye | 61,181 | 1,443 |
| 3. | Afghanistan | 51,275 | 2,307 |
| 4. | Iraq | 11,152 | 1,208 |
| 5. | Iran | 9,384 | 822 |
| 6. | Georgia | 8,414 | 985 |
| 7. | Russia | 7,663 | 1,365 |
| 8. | Somalia | 5,301 | 472 |
| 9. | Eritrea | 4,116 | 114 |
| 10. | Unknown | 4,060 | 239 |
| Total | 329,20 | 22,795 | |
Asylum application in 2024
Germany received 65,419 asylum applications in 2024 from January to March. Applications were mostly submitted by Syrian nationals which counted up to 19,687. On second number remained people from Afghanistan (9,772) country of origin. At number three, 9,689 asylum seekers from Türkiye submitted the protection application.
For the same period, the number of asylum applications has dropped to 19.2% compared with 2023. The same is true for the first 3 countries in the top 10 list.
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.
Source: schengenvisa.news