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Reuters (Berlin): Asylum applications in Germany jumped in the first quarter as authorities processed some of last year’s huge backlog of migrant arrivals that has strained local communities and Chancellor Angela Merkel’s ruling coalition alike.
Syrians accounted for almost half of the 181,000 applications, more than double the total of a year earlier and more than six in 10 of which were approved, the Interior Ministry said on Friday.
Most of the record 1.1 million migrants who arrived in Germany last year were registered at shelters where they wait for weeks or months before they can file asylum applications.
Arrivals dropped to a trickle in March as countries along the Balkan route through southeastern Europe imposed tight border controls to stem the flow of refugees fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East and beyond.
The influx of migrants has tested Merkel’s right-left coalition government and fuelled the rise of a populist anti-immigrant party that took votes from her conservatives and the co-governing Social Democrats in three state elections last month.
The arrivals of mostly Arab Muslims have also prompted a heated debate about integration as some Germans fear the influx could undermine their culture.
The authorities recorded around 60,000 asylum applications in March, down 11.5% from February but up 87% on March 2015.
Iraqis and Afghans were the second- and third-largest groups of asylum seekers in the first quarter.
An overstretched Federal Office for Migration and Refugees made decisions on 150,233 applications in the first quarter, an almost 159% jump from a year earlier.
The asylum approval rate was 61.6%, up from about 42% before the refugee crisis, the ministry said, as numbers of Syrians fleeing civil war increased disproportionately.
Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said there has also been a rise in the number of deportations of asylum seekers whose applications were rejected. At the same time, more and more migrants were leaving Germany of their own free will.
German Justice Minister appeals to press to hand over Panama Papers
Reuters: German Justice Minister Heiko Maas appealed in a newspaper interview to media to hand over the Panama Papers that show how offshore firms are used to stash the wealth of the world’s elite. German Justice Minister Heiko Maas attends a cabinet meeting at the Chancellery in Berlin, Germany, April 6, 2016. REUTERS
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