A major enquiry by the AfD party provides interesting insights into Saxony’s asylum seeker statistics. Out of a total of 17,484 asylum seekers in 2023, only 75 were granted asylum for political persecution in accordance with Article 16a of the Basic Law, which corresponds to around 0.43 per cent. A further 6,597 migrants were granted “protection status” through other legal channels. In contrast, 5,097 applications were rejected. Last year, the costs of migration totalled 652 million euros for the Free State of Bavaria alone; in 2021, the figure will be 376 million euros.
This figure is particularly interesting because, according to the latest police crime statistics (PKS), migrants have certainly contributed to an increase in crime. The number of recorded criminal offences has risen by 12,631 cases compared to the previous year. Particularly noteworthy is the significant increase in the number of suspects identified to a total of 92,358 people – an increase of 5,143 compared to the previous year. A large part of this increase is due to non-German suspects, who are significantly overrepresented in the PKS. In 2023, a total of 24,313 foreigners were recorded as suspects, compared to 19,905 in the previous year. This corresponds to 26.3 per cent of all suspects.
Sebastian Wippel, the AfD parliamentary group’s spokesperson on domestic policy, comments on the results of the enquiry.
He points out that the vast majority of asylum seekers are not labelled as politically persecuted within the meaning of the Basic Law. This means that considerable costs could be saved if only those who are actually politically persecuted were granted protection.
According to Wippel, it is particularly noteworthy that 88 per cent of the 73,320 recognised asylum seekers in Saxony have only been granted temporary protection status. This situation requires regular reviews, especially for the large group of people entitled to subsidiary protection, to determine whether the security situation in their countries of origin has improved and whether it is possible for them to return. He also points out that many European countries have already begun repatriations to Syria, while the Christian Democrats have been announcing this since 2017 but have not implemented it.