The Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) publishes monthly statistical reports (Aktuelle Zahlen zu Asyl) with information on applications and first instance decisions for main nationalities. More detailed information is provided in the monthly Asylgeschäftsstatistik and in other BAMF publications (Bundesamt in Zahlen).[1] Furthermore, detailed statistics can be found in responses to information requests which are regularly submitted by German members of parliament.
| Applicants in 2021 | Pending at end 2021 | Refugee status | Subsidiary protection | Rejection | Humanitarian protection (Removal ban) | Refugee rate | Subs. Prot. rate | Hum. Prot. rate | Rejection rate | ||
| Total | 190,816 | 108,064 | 32,065 | 22,996 | 35,071 | 4,787 | 33.8% | 24.2% | 5.0 % | 36.9% | |
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Breakdown by countries of origin of the total numbers
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| Syria | 70,162 | 34,368 | 16,077 | 20,206 | 66 | 238 | 43.9% | 55.2% | 0.7% | 0.2% | |
| Afghanistan | 31,721 | 27,846 | 1,575 | 461 | 1,516 | 2,272 | 27.0% | 7.9% | 39.0% | 26.0% | |
| Iraq | 16,872 | 1,802 | 2,471 | 458 | 4,466 | 631 | 30.8% | 5.7% | 7.9% | 55.6% | |
| Turkey | 7,873 | 4,939 | 2,458 | 35 | 3,288 | 18 | 42.4% | 0.6% | 0.3 % | 56.7% | |
| Stateless | 5,764 | 3,605 | 2,189 | 321 | 515 | 62 | 71.3% | 10.% | 2.0 % | 16.7% | |
| Moldova | 5,016 | 596 | 0 | 0 | 1,803 | 4 | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.2 % | 99.8% | |
| North Macedonia | 4,542 | 1,566 | 0 | 0 | 1,388 | 4 | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.3 % | 99.7% | |
| Pakistan | 1,962 | 700 | 163 | 11 | 733 | 50 | 17.0% | 1.1% | 5.2 % | 76.6% | |
| Albania | 1,897 | 544 | 0 | 5 | 887 | 3 | 0.0% | 0.6% | 0.3 % | 99.1% | |
| Serbia | 1,830 | 501 | 3 | 0 | 710 | 6 | 0.4% | 0.0% | 0.8 % | 98.7% | |
Source: BAMF, Asylgeschäftsstatistik (01-12/21), available in German at: https://bit.ly/3fvkrSI. Inadmissibility decisions and ‘formal decisions’ are excluded from the statistics above.
In addition to refugee and subsidiary protection, applicants can be issued two types of national protection statuses: on the one hand, constitutional asylum, which gives rise to the same rights as the recognition of refugee status (the figures on refugee status thus include constitutional asylum),[2], and on the other hand, a “removal ban” for compelling humanitarian reasons The figures presented in the table above represent the “adjusted protection rates” (bereinigte Schutzquoten). This means that “formal decisions” are not taken into account. There were 55,035 “formal decisions” in 2021, in which the applications were rejected as “inadmissible” or in which the asylum procedure was terminated for other reasons. In all of these cases, the substance of the case was not examined by the asylum authorities. In contrast, official statistics usually represent the “overall protection rate” (Gesamtschutzquoten), which is determined by including the formal decisions. The overall protection rates for 2021 are:
- Refugee rate: 21.4 %, Subsidiary protection rate: 15.3 %, “Removal ban”: 3.2%, Rejection: 23.4 %, Formal decisions: 36.7 %.
Gender/age breakdown of the total number of applicants: 2021 (first applications)
| Number | Percentage | |
| Total number of applicants | 148,233 | 100 % |
| Men (incl. children) | 48,216 | 32.5 % |
| Women (incl. children) | 26,736 | 18.0 % |
| Children | 73,281 | 49.4 % |
| Unaccompanied children | 2,760 | N/A |
Source: BAMF, Aktuelle Zahlen, December 2021, available in German at https://bit.ly/3KBBalG, 8. Note that the number of unaccompanied children is valid as of 30 November 2021, as full year statistics were not available.
Comparison between first instance and appeal decision rates as of 30 November 2021 (“adjusted decision rates”, excluding formal decisions):
| First instance | Appeal | |||
| Number | Percentage | Number | Percentage | |
| Total number of decisions | 85,540 | 100% | 41,702 | 100% |
| Positive decisions | 53,975 | 64.4% | 14,569 | 34.9% |
| Refugee status (incl. asylum) | 30,173
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35.3 % | 5,020 | 12.0% |
| Subsidiary protection | 20,794 | 24.3% | 1,021 | 2.4% |
| humanitarian status | 4,081 | 4.8% | 8,528 | 20.4% |
| Negative decisions | 31,565 | 36.9% | 27,133 | 65.1% |
Source: BAMF, Asylgeschäftsstatistik (11-12/21), available at https://bit.ly/3ubAUSO, and Federal Government, Response to parliamentary question by The Left, 20/432, 14 January 2022, 21.
[1] BAMF, Asylzahlen, available in German at: http://bit.ly/2mb014E.
[2] Constitutional asylum was granted in 1,226 cases in 2021.