2024-09-11 18:04:34
A lot has changed at the German borders: This year, the border police are turning away significantly more illegal migrants than before.
In the first half of 2024, the Federal Police sent more than half of the people they caught attempting to enter Germany illegally back to neighboring countries. This is reported by the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” citing figures from the Federal Ministry of the Interior.
The ministry published the figures at the request of left-wing Bundestag member Clara Bünger. According to the figures, the authorities registered 42,307 illegal entrants in the first six months. Of these, 21,661 people were turned away, which is a significantly higher rate than in the previous year.
In 2023, the Federal Police had only turned away 36,000 of the 128,000 people who entered the country illegally, which is a share of 28 percent. The number of those who ask for asylum at the border has also fallen: while the authorities accepted an asylum application for 45 percent of those apprehended in 2023, they only did so for 23 percent in the first half of 2024.