The tally of people seeking political asylum in Germany soared last year by one third, compared to the previous year, with official data on Thursday highlighting growing arrivals of Roma people from the Balkans.
Migrants from Africa, who have triggered tension between Germany and Italy over who should care for people arriving in Europe in boats across the Mediterranean, were only a small fraction of the total of 225,000 people seeking asylum as of the end of 2013.
Only 17 per cent originated from nations in Africa, the Statistics Office in Wiesbaden said. They were outnumbered by claimants from Montenegro, Kosovo and Serbia. Significant numbers of Roma from those states have filed claims, saying they are oppressed there.
A surge in Roma migration to western Europe has been linked to recent political successes by anti-immigrant parties in Britain and France, whereas far-right groups in Germany have gained scant leeway on the issue.
Pro-refugee groups have campaigned for Germany to welcome more Roma.
One group, Pro Asyl, said their Balkan home nations did nothing to protect Roma from racist violence, so they were entitled to the same welcome in Germany as political dissidents have been given over recent decades.
Although Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government has not explicitly criticized Roma immigration, pro-refugee groups argue that Germany’s policies are covertly aimed at limiting it.
The state-funded German Institute for Human Rights criticized the German government for its plans to automatically send home all asylum claimants from Serbia, Macedonia and Bosnia-Herzegovina.
“For the Roma, the human rights situation in those nations is terrible,” said an institute spokesman, Hendrik Cremer.
Merkel’s government argues the three nations are democratic and do not conduct reprisals against those who leave and seek asylum abroad.
It earlier sought to restrict welfare benefits to jobless people arriving from Bulgaria and Romania under European Union free-movement rules, a policy that was widely interpreted as being directed against the Roma people.
The overall asylum claims tally issued by government statisticians does not include past refugees who have already gained German residency rights. Nor does it include foreigners who are trying to stay in Germany without filing asylum requests.
The statistics only count how many people were receiving official benefits at the end of 2013 as they waited in Germany, often in hostels, for decisions on whether they have been persecuted in their homeland.
The jump in the end-of-2013 total of asylum applicants by 36 per cent marked the fourth year in a row in which applications have risen.
The number of claimants from Montenegro, Kosovo and Serbia was 40,400, while those fleeing conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria were numbered at 42,300. Claimants from Africa totalled 37,500.
GNA
PDC
