Germany continues to uphold its reputation as being Europe’s most popular destination for migrants entering the continent illegally.
As recent statistics from the Federal Police show, July saw the most migrants entering Germany illegally this year so far, with 10,714 entries recorded.
The figure continues the upward trend observed since last February while exceeding the one of July the year before (6,941).
In May and June alone, a total of 17,993 people entered Germany illegally.
So far this year, 56,052 migrants have come to Germany illegally—almost as many as the entirety of 2021. Last year, the total was 91.986.
“These figures are further evidence that the measures proposed by [Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s] traffic light government at the last refugee summit are not working,” head of the Federal Police Union Heiko Teggatz told Bild.
In May 2023, to appease local governments’ complaints that they were overwhelmed by migrants, Scholz promised to enforce tighter border controls. A measure that, at least in the short term, appears not to have paid off.
A few days ago, Minister-President Reiner Haseloff (CDU) of the German state of Saxony-Anhalt commented that “we are currently overextending ourselves with [our efforts at] integration.”
Immigrants with no prospects in Germany, he added, should be sent back to their home country “as soon as possible,” and should be better distinguished from those entitled to asylum and war refugees. Haseloff argued the Scholz government had failed to make this distinction, and concluded they could “no longer put off this problem.”
The new statistics come just as Germany’s federal government passed a draft bill to loosen the nation’s citizenship law. The government argues that fast-tracking the citizenship process will attract skilled migrants to plug chronic labor shortages.
Reacting to the passing of the bill, Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser (SPD) took to X, formerly Twitter, saying the reform was “a commitment to a modern Germany. We are creating immigration law that does justice to our diverse society. Finally!”
