Syrian asylum seekers in Germany currently wait an average of 13.1 months from submitting an asylum application to getting a decision, which is significantly longer than in the previous year. 

That's according to an answer to a Parliamentary inquiry by Left Party politician Clara Bünger to the Federal Ministry of the Interior, which was published in the Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung on Wednesday (July 23).

The much longer processing time is reportedly due to a decision freeze for Syrian refugees.

According to the answer to the inquiry, it took the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) an average of 4.4 months longer between January and July than in 2024, when the average processing time for applications was 8.7 months.

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Situation in Syria 'dangerous and unstable'

The reason for the longer processing time is Germany's decision from last December to freeze asylum processing for Syrian citizens.

According to said answer, more than 52,000 applications from Syrian refugees have not yet been processed, with some having been pending for more than eleven months. This means that close to half of all applications of Syrians are pending in Germany.

So-called Dublin cases, in contrast, are faster than last year (2.8 months), taking an average of 2.5 months.

Decisions by administrative courts on asylum claims are also being made slightly faster than last year (16.6 months), with an average of 15 months.

Clara Bünger, spokesperson for the Left Party in the Bundestag on domestic and refugee policy, has meanwhile criticized the decision freeze for Syrian refugees.

"The situation in Syria remains dangerous and unstable. The Federal Office for Refugees and Migration must therefore abandon the extensive decision freeze on Syria and once again grant protection to Syrian refugees in need of protection," she said.

Total figure dropped by almost half

In the first six months of this year, the overall number of asylum applications in Germany fell by almost half.

A total of 65,495 asylum applications were filed in Germany between January 1 and June 30, as reported by Welt am Sonntag at the beginning of the month, citing figures from the European Union Agency for Asylum (EUAA). This represents a 43 percent decline compared to the same period last year.

According to the data, most asylum seekers in Germany came from Afghanistan (22 percent), Syria (20 percent), and Turkey (11 percent).

As a result of fewer Syrians seeking asylum in Germany, the EU's most populous country has not been the bloc's top destination for asylum seekers since February: In May of this year, Germany received 9,900 applications, a drop of 47 percent compared to May 2024.

Spain, Italy and France all received more applications than Germany in May.

with AFP