The number of asylum seekers arriving in the country halved in the first six months of 2025, the German government has reported. There were just over 70,000 applications between January and July, compared to nearly 141,000 during the same period last year. For years, Germany has struggled with managing the number of people seeking asylum in Germany. Since 2015, the country has granted protection to 3.5 million refugees, of which about 1.2 million were Ukrainians fleeing Russia’s invasion.
In the first six months of 2025, there were 61,336 fresh asylum applications, half as many as were recorded over the same period in 2024. Germany is no longer the leading destination for asylum seekers in the European Union, having been overtaken by Spain and France.
Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt said: “We have massively reduced the number of initial asylum applications compared to last year.” The current government under Friedrich Merz is taking the credit for the results, arguing its strict border controls, which return all asylum seekers at Germany’s frontiers, have worked. The policy was one of Merz’s key election promises.
But Merz’s centre-left predecessor Olaf Scholz claims that the figures already began dropping before Merz took office. The party members argue that it was their policy, which included temporary controls across the country’s entire border, that worked.
Migration experts generally believe that the key factor is likely less to do with German immigration policy and more with broader shifts in the geopolitics of Europe’s surrounding regions. Irregular crossings to the EU bloc fell by 38% last year, data from Frontex, the European Union’s border agency, show. Additionally, fewer Syrians are applying for refuge, following the collapse of the Assad regime. Other factors include a fall in the number of migrants leaving camps in Turkey, and the tightening of borders in the Balkans.
Merz’s new checks have stirred controversy for breaching Schengen’s passport-free travel rules, with Germany now enforcing controls on borders with Poland, Switzerland, Austria, France, the Czech Republic, Denmark, and the Netherlands.
