Hundreds of refugees have travelled back from Germany to their home countries for vacations since the beginning of 2023.
That was despite seeking asylum in Germany and asserting their need for assistance due to various reasons — ranging from political persecution to war in their home countries.
Answering questions from the Alternative for Germany Party (AfD), the German Government acknowledged the numbers, German news outlet Apollo News reported on October 24.
Iraqis made up the largest group, with 172 people vacationing in Iraq. Separately, 102 people returned to Syria and 37 to Afghanistan.
As there is no legal obligation for refugees to report these trips, it has been suggested by experts that the real number, including unreported trips, was much higher.
The German Government considers Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan as too dangerous to deport people to.
German asylum law stipulates that travel by beneficiaries of protection to their countries of origin can have serious consequences, including the revocation of protection and termination of residence in Germany.
A draft law has been proposed for automatically revoking the protection status of refugees if they make trips to their home countries – except if those trips were regarded as morally imperative, for example when a family member is ill.
It said it would also introduce a notification obligation for such trips.
These changes would not be part of the government’s “security package”, legislation aimed at strengthening security after a terrorist knife attack in Solingen in August last year.
While replying to questions from the AfD Party, the government further admitted it did not have data on how many illegal migrants were currently in Germany.
There is no information in the Central Register of Foreigners about whether foreigners have arrived in the country illegally or legally.
While the number of asylum applications is known, it is unclear how many illegal immigrants there are actually in Germany.
Since 2014, there have been three million asylum applications in Germany, according to official statistics.
Critics have said the fact that the government did not know how many illegal migrants there were in Germany revealed “a dramatic loss of control”, especially given several high-profile crimes and terrorist attacks by asylum seekers in recent times.
In the past number of years, knife crime has become a controversial issue, particularly regarding that involving people with an immigration background.
A terror cell aligned with the Islamic State (IS) has called for lone-wolf attacks on LGBT events in Germany, according to local news reports.
