The number of unauthorized entries to Germany last year reached a new high since 2017. The federal police registered almost 58,000 cases. The reason for this is, among other things, the Belarusian government, which brings refugees to the borders of the EU. But the pandemic is also driving the number up.
The Federal Police noticed a significant increase in unauthorized migration to Germany in the past year. The officials registered 57,637 unauthorized entries into Germany, which is an increase of 63 percent compared to the previous year and, according to the federal police, the highest level since 2017. This is the result of the annual report of the federal police, which Interior Minister Nancy Faeser and Federal Police President Dieter Romann want to present in Berlin . It is available to the German Press Agency.
The increase is also likely to have something to do with the start of the corona pandemic in 2020. Travel restrictions and flight cancellations meant that significantly fewer asylum seekers came to Germany than usual for months. According to the report, more migrants who had reached eastern EU countries via Belarus came to Germany from August 2021. The EU accuses the ruler there, Alexander Lukashenko, of bringing migrants from crisis regions to the EU’s external border in an organized manner.
Irregular internal migration between EU countries also played a role, according to the report, especially from Greece. People recognized as refugees in Greece traveled to Germany by plane to apply for asylum again. According to the federal police, more than 100 people were found doing this on peak days. According to the report, about half of the people who entered the country illegally and who were picked up by the federal police at the borders came from Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria.
