In September there were almost twice as many asylum applications from Afghans than Syrians in Europe. Meanwhile, the German government is appealing to Minsk to allow aid for the refugees at the border.
According to the EU asylum agency EASO, the number of asylum applications in Europe from Afghanistan has risen sharply. In September of this year, asylum-seeking Afghans submitted around 17,300 applications in the EU as well as Norway and Switzerland, the Malta-based authority announced on Friday. This increased the number of applications by more than 70 percent. In August, when the militant Islamist Taliban regained power in Afghanistan and many people fled or were evacuated from there, there were around 10,000 requests.
Compared with applications from Syria (9100), according to EASO, almost twice as many people from Afghanistan sought protection in the EU in September.
A total of 71,200 asylum applications were received from different nations – for the first time as many as since the beginning of 2020, i.e. not before the outbreak of the corona pandemic. EASO determined that the number of applications from countries such as Turkey, Iraq, Bangladesh and Pakistan continued to rise. The first instance decisions by the asylum authorities in the states grew to around 40,500 in September compared with the previous month. However, the increase increases the time between the application and the decision, stressed EASO.
German government appeals to Minsk
The German government has asked Belarus to grant international aid organizations regular access to the refugees on the Polish border. Government spokesman Steffen Seibert said in Berlin on Friday that Chancellor Angela Merkel had underlined the need for humanitarian care in two phone calls with the Belarusian ruler Alexander Lukashenko. The Belarusian side is expected to take action, he said.
Thousands of migrants have been trying for weeks from Belarus
(Belarus) to enter the EU via the Polish eastern border. Brussels accuses Lukashenko of having specifically flown in people from crisis regions in order to smuggle them into the EU
and destabilize the situation there. Many refugees wait in the border area under sometimes poor conditions. According to its own statements, the German Interior Ministry has no reliable information on how many migrants have died there as a result of the cold or violent attacks.