10th May, 2020
Statistics from the Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF), has revealed that the number of foreigners applying for asylum in Germany was down in the first four months of 2020 against the same time frame last year.
In a report by the Sunday newspaper, Bild am Sonntag, the number of people applying for asylum for the first time in the country decreased by 29 percent to 29,132.
In April, the number of applications was down to 4,100 – half the number noted in the same month in 2019.
Officials attributed the dip in numbers to the coronavirus pandemic and beefed-up border checks.
Most of the applicants were from Syria, Afghanistan, and Iraq.
In 2019, Germany received 142,509 asylum applications, 20,000 fewer than the previous year, according to the Interior Ministry.
DPA/NAN