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Overview of statistical practice
Asylum statistics are published on a monthly basis by the Ministry of Interior, providing information on asylum applicants and main nationalities. As of 2016, these monthly reports also provide decisions at first and second instance.[1] The Federal Agency for Immigration and Asylum (BFA) also publishes short annual statistical overviews (Jahresbilanzen).[2]
Applications and granting of protection status at first and second instance: 2021
By the end of march 2022, the annual statistics on the year 2021 had still not been published by the Ministry of Interior. The table below thus provides an overview of preliminary statistics as of December 2021 The Ministry provided incomplete data on rejections, as it only refers to negative in-merit decisions on asylum – not the rejection of subsidiary protection or humanitarian status. A calculation of recognition rates is therefore not possible and the below figures must be read with particular caution:
| Applicants in 2021 | Pending at end 2021 | Refugee status | Subsidiary protection | Rejection on asylum | Refugee rate | Sub. Prot. rate | Rejection rate | |
| Total | 38,638 | 27,953 | 11,672 | 4,069 | 13,222 | – | – | – |
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Breakdown by countries of origin of the total numbers
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| Syria | 15,796 | 10,573 | 6,639 | 996 | 445 | – | – | – |
| Afghanistan | 8,461 | 5,629 | 2,504 | 1,645 | 3,416 | – | – | – |
| Morocco | 1,865 | 523 | 3 | 0 | 1,363 | – | – | – |
| Somalia | 1,629 | 1,522 | 546 | 151 | 285 | – | – | – |
| Pakistan | 1,328 | 591 | 30 | 6 | 778 | – | – | – |
| Bangladesh | 1,010 | 252 | 34 | 8 | 511 | – | – | – |
| Iraq | 1,001 | 1,650 | 251 | 906 | 2,213 | – | – | – |
| Egypt | 949 | 388 | 4 | 1 | 558 | – | – | – |
| India | 928 | N/A | 1 | 6 | 442 | – | – | – |
| Turkey | 904 | 673 | 175 | 6 | 165 | – | – | – |
Source: Ministry of Interior. Note that the number of pending cases at the end of 2021 refer to all cases pending at first and second instance; and that the rejection only refers to negative decisions concerning asylum. This does not lead to the conclusion that in all rejected cases a return decision was issued or that no other status was issued.
Gender/age breakdown of the total number of applicants: 2021
| Number | Percentage | |
| Total number of applicants | 38,638 | 100% |
| Men (incl. children) | 33,071 | 85.59% |
| Women (incl. children) | 5,567 | 14.41% |
| Children | 11,689 | 30.3% |
| Unaccompanied children | 5,768 | 14.93% |
Source: Ministry of Interior, Answer to parliamentary request 9531/AB, 11 April 2022
Comparison between first instance and appeal decision rates: 2021
| First instance | Appeal | |||
| Number | Percentage | Number | Percentage | |
| Total number of decisions | 29,357 | 100% | – | – |
| Positive decisions | 11,824 | 40.28% | – | – |
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9,501 | 32.4% | – | – |
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2,153 | 7.3% | – | – |
| – Article 8 ECHR | 188 | 0.6% | – | – |
| Negative decisions | 9,489 | 32.32% | – | – |
| – Formal reasons | 3,780 | 12.9% | – | – |
| – On merits | 5,709 | 19.5% | – | – |
| Other | 8,044 | 27.4% | – | – |
Source: Ministry of Interior, Answer to parliamentary request 9531/AB, 11 April 2022
[1] Ministry of Interior, Asylum Statistics, available in German at: http://bit.ly/2xmiKOT.
[2] BFA, Statistics, available in German at: http://bit.ly/1XKnnsy. These have been published since 2014.