The number of people applying for asylum in Germany has rocketed by 80 percent in one year due to global crises, according to a government office.
In March 2014 79.2 percent more people applied for asylum than in the same month the previous year, according to the Federal Office of Migration and Refugees (BAMF).
In March 2013 the number of new asylum applicants was only 5,579.
Most of the asylum seekers in March 2014 came to Germany from Syria (1,786 people) and Serbia (1,386 people), according to the BAMF report released on Wednesday.
There were also just over a thousand people who came to Germany from Afghanistan and around the same number from Macedonia.
“Asylum applications have in fact been rising steadily since 2009,” a spokeswoman for BAMF told The Local, adding that the number had almost tripled within a few years.
“The reasons are varied,” she said. “We continue to see many cases of asylum applications from countries like Afghanistan, where the situation hasn’t improved. But of course there are new crisis hotspots like Syria too.”
There has also been an increase in asylum applications from Chechnya.”Political persecution is the most common reason,” she said.
The BAMF said 2,098 were granted asylum under their rights as a refugee as per the Geneva convention, around 19 percent of the total applicants for the month. (more)
Read the whole story here:
http://www.thelocal.de/20140410/german-asylum-seekers-up-80-percent-in-a-year
Source: The Local