Outgoing Interior Minister Nancy Faeser announced on Sunday that Germany expects the number of asylum seekers to reach its lowest level in over a decade this year. She attributed this to the sharp reduction in irregular migration achieved over the past two years. Faeser estimates that asylum applications could fall to around 100,000 in 2025. The last time Germany saw fewer than 100,000 applications was in 2012, according to the federal migration office. In 2024, there were just under 251,000 applications, a decrease from approximately 352,000 the previous year.
Faeser’s successor, Alexander Dobrindt of the CSU, plans to increase border controls and the number of people rejected at the border. He stated that “illegal migration numbers must come down.” Plans include deploying several thousand additional officials to support federal police at the borders and increasing monitoring of border regions.
Germany’s new government aims to take a firmer stance on migration to reduce support for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), which has gained traction by capitalizing on public concerns about border security.
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