Asylum applications in Germany fell by 34 per cent last year, the country’s interior ministry has said.
The news on February 4 was welcomed by the outgoing Social Democratic Party (SDU) interior minister amid heated debates over migration ahead of a national election set for February 23.
Public angst over migration has surged following a flurry of violent incidents involving immigrants, including a car-ramming and a deadly knife attack in the past two months alone that killed a total of eight people, according to Reuters.
These concerns have stoked support for the hard-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), which opinion polls put in second place behind the main Conservative opposition.
Germany registered 213,499 asylum applications in 2024, down from 322,636 the year before, the new data showed. In January, 37 per cent fewer applications were submitted than in January 2024.
Federal police registered almost a third fewer illegal arrivals in 2024: 83,572 versus 127,549 in 2023, Reuters reported.
“This shows once again that our measures are working,” said interior minister Nancy Faeser, whose Social Democrats are languishing in third place in opinion polls before the election.
Law enforcement continues to push back strongly against irregular migration, she added.
In response to public concerns, Germany last September reintroduced immigration checks at all its land borders, a move that drew criticism from neighbouring countries who said it breached the European Union‘s principle of free movement.
On January 29, Friedrich Merz, the CDU leader who is tipped to become Germany’s next chancellor, pushed a non-binding motion through parliament demanding a further tightening of border controls.
The German parliament later rejected a draft bill, also sponsored by Merz, that called for restrictions on family reunification and more expulsions at the borders.
Both votes caused controversy in Germany because they had the support of the AfD and thus marked a breach in a long-standing taboo among mainstream parties against co-operation with the party.
On February 2, tens of thousands of people protested in Berlin against the Conservatives’ efforts to limit immigration and against the AfD.
