From Hildburg Bruns
The state of Berlin deported 897 rejected asylum seekers last year – significantly fewer than in the previous Corona year (1005). There were no threats among those deported, but there were 162 criminals straight from prison.
The main deportation months in the statistics of the State Office for Immigration (LEA) are November (175), February (130), January (121). 8,910 foreigners left the country voluntarily. About every twentieth returnee received support, as the interior administration announced in response to a parliamentary inquiry from the AfD.
575 people were flown out on charter planes, Berlin had organized 17 flights itself – to Armenia, Ghana and Serbia, for example. Most of the deportees ended up in their countries of origin, while 122 landed where they first arrived in Europe.
At the end of 2022, on the other hand, 18,399 foreigners in Berlin were still required to leave the country – mainly from Moldova (3,424), Iraq (1,771), the Russian Federation (1,266) and Lebanon (1,002). The total of 16,965 tolerated persons are often missing not only passports (1377), there are often also medical reasons.
Last year, 12,474 new asylum seekers were distributed to Berlin, mainly from Georgia (1891), Syria (1844), Turkey (1628). Asylum applications are processed by the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF).
Of the 16,535 decisions that were made by the state of Berlin, 161 were entitled to asylum, 2,016 refugees entitled to protection plus 1831 family members. In contrast, 5,576 asylum applications were rejected – that is, every third person. At the end of the year, 6,453 Berlin initial applications had not yet been decided.