In Germany, the number of asylum seekers has dropped to its lowest recorded level in recent years: 29,000 immigrants applied for asylum in 2005. This is the lowest number on record, combined with a further drop in the number of asylum applications accepted by Germany: only 411 last year. According to Caritas of the diocese of Münster, the figure does not represent any evidence of abuse of the right of asylum, but rather “the result of the constant restrictions imposed on the right of asylum over the last twenty years”, as declared in a statement issued on 11 January by the delegate for immigration of the diocesan Caritas agency, Angela Tieben, who added: “of the principle of asylum enshrined in the Constitution only an empty husk remains which has reduced the idea ad absurdum“. German legislation on asylum has indeed become more restrictive. “Although the [international] situation has not improved, especially in African countries, the chance of being able to enter Germany hardly exists any longer for refugees”. Tieben criticized the fact that, in spite of the drastically reduced numbers, further limitations and greater efforts to obtain the expulsion of asylum seekers have been announced. According to the Caritas representative, “the fact that many asylum seekers, whose application has been turned down, cannot be expelled, is proof of the difficult situation in their country of origin. For example, civil war is no longer considered a reason for accepting an asylum application. Only those who can prove they have been personally persecuted have some chance of success. But that is practically impossible precisely due to the difficult situation of refugees’ country of origin”, she concluded. The figure for asylum seekers in 2005 is the lowest on record since 1983. According to Angela Tieben, that is due not to the fact that persecution has declined in the world but to the fact “that virtually no chance of being accepted as a refugee in Germany exists any longer”.
