Germany has announced that asylum applications filed in its territory have dropped by more than 14% over the past year, BTA reported. Data show that the downward trend continues after the influx of migrants from the Middle East in 2015 and 2016.

Today, the German Ministry of the Interior announced that in 2019 111 094 applications were submitted by people applying for asylum for the first time. This is 18 534 or 14,3% less than in the previous year.

Syrians are the largest group of asylum seekers with 26,453 applications. They are followed by 10 894 people from Iraq, 10 275 from Turkey, 7778 from Iran and 7124 from Afghanistan.

A total of 6771 applications were filed in December, according to the Interior Ministry.

Interior Minister Horst Seehofer said "the number of asylum seekers in Germany has been falling for the third consecutive year." In his words, this shows that "the number of measures against uncontrolled immigration have worked," but said that "migration pressure at the external borders (of the European Union) and towards Germany remains high."