The number of refugees in Germany more than doubled.
In the first half of 2015, 179,037 applications for political asylum were filed in Germany, which is 132 percent higher than the figure for the same period of the previous year. This was reported by Deutsche Welle, citing data from the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF). Syria still ranks first in number of migrants – almost 34,500 asylum seekers came from there.
Every second asylum seeker in Germany is from the Balkan Peninsula. 82,243 people arrived in Germany from Kosovo, Albania, Serbia, Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro. German authorities granted 34.7 percent of all applications from foreigners seeking refugee status in Germany.
German Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière, after reviewing the new statistical data, stated that German civil servants must now "more quickly and clearly distinguish between people truly in need of protection and other individuals who cannot by any means count on a right of residence" in Germany. According to forecasts by the German government, a total of up to 450,000 applications for political asylum will be filed in 2015.