Turkish nationals seeking asylum from Germany surge by 216% in 2022 -BAMF

Turkish nationals seeking asylum from Germany surge by 216% in 2022 -BAMF
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The figures have placed Turkey in third position after Syria and Afghanistan, in terms of the highest number of applications filed for asylum in Germany, according to the official data provided by the German Federal for Migration and Refugees

A total of 20,802 Turkish nationals applied for asylum in Germany in the first 11 months of 2022, SchengenVisaInfo.com reported on Wednesday.

Citing official data provided from the German Federal for Migration and Refugees (BAMF), the website said the number of applications received last year marked a significant increase of 216 percent, compared to 7,873 applications filed under the same purpose during the same period in 2021.

The figures have placed Turkey in third position after Syria and Afghanistan, in terms of the highest number of applications filed for asylum in Germany, it said, listing the reasons for the applications as restrictions of basic freedoms, political oppression and the state of the Turkish economy.

The majority of applicants were reportedly had links with the Gulen Movement, while 8.9 per cent of applications were from Kurds from Turkey, it said, citing a report by the Stockholm Center for Freedom.

The approval rate for the applications was 73.8 percent, SchengenVisaInfo.com said.

According to Dundar Kelloglu, a lawyer from a nongovernmental organization working with refugees in Germany, “most of these people are educated and good at demanding their rights, making their justifications and expressing themselves in Germany.”

“That is why the acceptance rate of asylum applications is high for Turks,” he said.

Following a coup attempt in July 2016 that Turkey blames on the Gulen Movement, Turkish government launched a crackdown on the group’s alleged followers, detaining hundreds of thousands and imprisoning around 30,000 people on terrorism related charges. Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen who lives in self-imposed exile in the United States denies Turkey’s accusations of orchestrating the failed putsch.

Since 2015, when the “peace process” with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) has collapsed, Turkey under the rule of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has also intensified a crackdown on Kurdish groups, mainly on the country’s second largest opposition HDP, in which thousands of its members have been tried and hundreds are imprisoned on terrorism charges, including its former co-chairs Selahattin Demirtas and Figen Yuksekdag.

According to Turkish lawyer Levent Maziliguney, Turkey has launched more than two million terrorism investigations following the failed coup of July 2016.