Turks have been the second largest group seeking asylum in Germany since the beginning of the year, Deutsche Welle Turkish service reported on Thursday, citing statistics released by the German Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF).
According to BAMF data, Turkish citizens lodged a total of 56,673 requests for asylum between the beginning of the year and the end of November, 55,354 of which were first-time applications. They filed more than 10,000 applications in November alone.
Turks were second to Syrians in seeking asylum, followed by Afghans.
Andrea Lindholz, an MP from the Christian Social Union in Bavaria (CSU), described the number of Turkish asylum cases as “unacceptable for a NATO ally and a candidate for EU membership.”
Lindholz had previously submitted a parliamentary inquiry about the increase in Turkish applicants, to which the Federal Ministry of the Interior replied that the trend had to do with the situation in Turkey as well as the individual circumstances of Turkish citizens arriving in Germany.
Since a failed coup in 2016 that led to a widespread crackdown on dissent by the Turkish government, the number of Turkish nationals seeking asylum in Germany and other Western European countries has seen a marked increase.
An ongoing economic crisis in the country caused by skyrocketing inflation, which was above 60 percent in November, and the constant depreciation of the Turkish lira is also prompting some Turks to seek ways to leave the country for a better life in Europe. Moreover, yet another victory by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, whose party has been ruling Turkey since 2002, in the May presidential election led to disappointment among his opponents, prompting many of them to reconsider living in the country.
