German Chancellor Olaf Scholz urged Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to move forward in repatriating asylum seekers from Turkey who do not have the right to stay in Germany, at a time when the number of Turkish asylum seekers has more than tripled during the current year.
Sources from the German government stated that after the dinner to which Erdogan was invited at the Chancellery in Berlin on Friday, November 16, which lasted two hours, Scholz stressed the need for there to be a “strong mechanism” to achieve this, according to the “Deutsche Welle” website.
The sources added that both the German Chancellor and the Turkish President “welcomed the intensive work within the framework of the newly formed bilateral working group of the interior authorities, and charged them with reaching a mutually agreeable result as soon as possible.”
The German newspaper “Faz” reported that the number of Turkish asylum seekers in Germany increased very quickly this year, and as of last August 2, nearly 24,000 Turkish citizens had submitted an initial application for asylum in Germany.
This is more than 3 times what it was the previous year.
These numbers put Turkey in third place on the list of countries whose citizens seek asylum after Syria and Afghanistan.
It is noteworthy that Interior Minister Nancy Faeser confirmed in press statements on October 23 that the number of deportations this year increased by 27% compared to the same period last year, and she said: “However, we must enact rules that enable us to implement our law more firmly and swiftly.”
The increase in the number of migrants and refugees and the decrease in the number of deportations represent a major political problem in Germany, where right-wing populist parties have benefited from anti-immigrant sentiment, according to observers.
In light of this, Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced a stricter asylum policy during an interview with the German magazine Spiegel, where he said: “We must finally deport those who do not have the right to remain in Germany on a large scale.” He considered it “unacceptable that deportation procedures last in many cases for years.”
