Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) expects the lowest asylum numbers since over a decade in 2025. “If irregular migration continues to be pushed back as successfully as we have done in the past two years, then asylum applications in Germany could be around 100,000 this year” said the SPD politician to the newspapers of the Funke Media Group (Monday editions). According to the Federal Ministry of the Interior, the number of asylum applications was below 100,000 in 2012. In April of this year, 8,840 asylum applications were filed, whereas in April of two years ago, there were almost 20,000 – a decrease of 55 percent, Faeser calculated. From January 1st to April 30th, 2025, the Federal Ministry of the Interior recorded a total of 42,460 asylum applications. The Federal Police controls all German land borders and has already rejected over 53,000 people at these controls since October 2023, said the outgoing Minister, whose office will be taken over by CSU politician Alexander Dobrindt. Over 2,200 smugglers have been arrested during these temporary internal border controls. “All of this is done in close European coordination and within the framework of European law” said Faeser. “Only in this way can measures not fail immediately in court – and only in this way do they also work.” The SPD politician emphasized the need to continue acting together with neighboring countries in the future. “The new Common European Asylum System will be the decisive step towards further limiting and strengthening the protection of the EU’s external borders” said Faeser. The core of the reformed European asylum system consists of asylum procedures at the external borders and a solidarity mechanism that regulates the distribution of refugees in the EU. The future black-red federal government wants to significantly expand the rejection of asylum seekers at the German borders – “in consultation with” the neighboring countries, as stated in the coalition agreement. Whether the consent of the neighboring countries was required remained controversial among the coalition partners.
Faeser Predicts Record Low Asylum Applications in Germany in 2025
