At Least 130,000 Refugees Went Missing in Germany in 2015

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — More than 130,000 asylum seekers – some 13 percent out of all migrants registered in Germany last year — went missing in 2015 after being registered in the country, a local newspaper reported Friday, citing German Interior Ministry data.

The figures were published by the Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper after German opposition party Die Linke made an official request to the interior ministry about the number of refugees who never turned up at the accommodation provided for them.

According to the paper, the ministry said the reason for the migrants’ absence could be either moving on to a different country or "submersion into illegality." Some migrants who have family or friends already living in Germany might have decided to stay with them, instead of living at governmental reception facilities, the media outlet noted.

Amid a major refugee inflow to Europe, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has come under fire for her open-door policy which saw over one million migrants arrive in the country in 2015.

The head of Germany's Federal Office for Migration and Refugees, Frank-Juergen Weise, admitted earlier this week that there are currently up to 400,000 people in the country whose identities are unknown to authorities.