Number of Migrant Entry Refusals to Germany Increased by 50% in 2016

More migrants and refugees have been refused entry to Germany in the first six months of 2016 than throughout the entire previous year, local Neue Osnabrücker Zeitungmedia reported Tuesday, citing information obtained by the Left party from a governmental source.

BERLIN (Sputnik) — A total of 13,324 people were refused entry to Germany either at land borders or at airports during the first six months of the year, constituting a 50-percent increase over the 8,913 rejections in the whole of 2015, the newspaper reported.

According to the Interior Ministry data, Afghan nationals constituted more than a quarter of the refusals at border crossings, followed by Syrians, Iraqis and Iranians. A total of 2,030 people have been refused entry at passport control in airports, the majority of them Albanians.

Europe is struggling to find a solution to a massive refugee crisis, with hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing conflict-torn countries in the Middle East and North Africa.

The EU border agency Frontex detected over 1.83 million illegal border crossings in 2015, in contrast to some 283,000 in 2014. Of these, more than 1 million net arrivals streamed into Germany, according to the German Federal Statistical Office.