Asylum numbers in Germany: decline in initial applications in September

In September, 40 percent fewer people applied for asylum for the first time than in the same month last year. However, the number has increased slightly compared to August.

Berlin. In Germany, more people applied for asylum for the first time in September than in the previous month. However, this does not change the long-term decline in the number of asylum seekers. As a spokeswoman for the Federal Ministry of the Interior announced upon request, the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (Bamf) accepted 5,276 initial asylum applications last month. That is 40 percent less than in September last year.

“The significant decline in the number of asylum seekers shows that our measures at national and European levels are working,” said Federal Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt (CSU). The European Union is continuing its course “to turn the asylum system around”. This includes a crisis reaction mechanism that protects the EU's external borders from "controlled mass incursions", with a "rapid reaction force" from the EU border protection agency Frontex and fast-track procedures at the borders.

After around 5,550 initial asylum applications in May, the number of new asylum applications fell even further; in July and August there were fewer than 4,000 applications in each case. The fact that in recent months a number of people who have been living in Germany for a long time have submitted a follow-up application to the Bamf is due to a ruling by the European Court of Justice.

It was determined in October 2024 that women from Afghanistan, which has been ruled by the Islamist Taliban again since 2021, are fundamentally entitled to protection.

Within Europe, the number of applications for international protection recorded by the EU Asylum Agency continues to decline. According to preliminary figures, 452,969 applications for protection were registered in the 27 EU countries as well as Norway and Switzerland within the first nine months of this year, as “Welt am Sonntag” reports. The numbers may vary slightly due to late registrations from member countries.

According to official information from the EU statistics office Eurostat, 598,575 applications were submitted in the same period last year. That's a decrease of almost 25 percent. “Welt am Sonntag” refers to a document from the EU Commission that is marked confidential. Accordingly, the most asylum applications were made in France (98,822 asylum applications) and Italy (78,496), Germany is in third place with 70,257 applications.