The number of Iranian asylum seekers coming to Germany has risen significantly since the onset of the latest wave of protests in the country. That's according to a report published in the news magazine, Der Spiegel.
According to the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF), 613 Iranians had applied for asylum in September this year. However by October, that number had risen to 892 and then in November to 1,039.
In the same month last year, the number of asylum seekers from Iran stood at only 381.
In 2021, BAMF counted a total of 2,693 asylum applications of Iranian nationals, while this year the tally stood at already 5,447 by the end of November -- more than twice the number registered the previous year.
Read more: Calls mount to ease asylum for Iranians, as clampdown on protestors claims more lives
No uniform law
The Green Party, which is one of the junior coalition partners in the current German government, insists that rapid assistance has to be given to dissidents in Iran:
"Refugees from Iran must be granted protection and asylum here in Germany," said Green Party politician Julian Pahlke. He added that a ban on deportations of failed asylum seekers from Iran needed to be upheld.
Deportation flights to Iran have been halted since the unrest in the country escalated. The protests started in September after the death in custody of 22-year-old Kurdish woman Jina Mahsa Amini.
However, this pause on deportations to Iran has not been drawn up as a piece of actual legislation so far. In view of the events in Iran, some German federal states have decided on enacting their own deportation stops. These include Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia, Schleswig-Holstein, Bremen and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.
But Bavaria, for example, wants to hold on to the practise of deporting Iranian nationals if they have committed a crime. The same is reportedly true for the state of Saxony.
Read more: Italy welcomes 178 Afghan refugees from Pakistan, Iran
Thousands of Iranians in Germany at risk
Some politicians in Germany like Interior Minister Nancy Faeser want to enact a general stop of deportations to Iran, as reports of human rights violations and growing executions have EU nations worried. Others, however, argue that criminal individuals should be sent back to their home country regardless.
The migrant organization ProAsyl however says that in case of a deportation "to a torture state like Iran, Germany cannot, in our view, ensure that there is no threat of human rights abuse."
According to data released by the Federal Ministry of the Interior in October, there are close to 12,000 Iranians living in Germany who are due to be deported back to their country.
Until the protests ignited in September, there were only 31 people who were deported to Iran in 2022. This compares to 28 people in all of 2021.
Read more: Deportations to Iran should be stopped: German interior minister
with dpa, DW