Germany has considered more applications for asylum than all other EU countries combined during the first six months of 2017, Die Welt writes referring to the EU statistical agency Eurostat on Monday, December 4.
According to the agency, Germany has reviewed more than 357 thousand applications. All the other 27 EU countries have reviewed 199 thousand applications for asylum. These are the so-called “primary” applications, that is, the refugees' first appeal to the authorities for asylum.
Die Welt notes that the data of the EU statistical agency diverge from the data of the German Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF). According to the calculations of the BAMF, more than 388,000 applications for asylum were considered in Germany.
According to Die Welt, Germany remains the most desirable target-country for refugees. According to daily, about 15,000 new asylum seekers arrive in this country every month since April 2016.
On Saturday, December 3, it was announced that the German government increased the amount of payments to voluntary repatriates. So, the family of refugees of three people, who was denied asylum and who will decide to return voluntarily to their homeland, can receive up to 6,000 euros.
Only 8,639 refugees agreed to return voluntarily to their homelands from February to October 2017. Another 19,520 people were deported by the German authorities, Deutsche Welle reports.
SOURCE: News.am
