In an editorial article for the Die Welt daily, its political editor Marcel Leubecher admitted that most of the migrants that head to Europe in boats across the Mediterranean are not genuine refugees, which contributes to their very low chances of having their asylum approved.
“Contrary to popular belief, the majority of those arriving in Italy are not refugees. The main countries of origin for boat migrants in January were Algeria, the Ivory Coast, and Bangladesh,” Leubecher wrote.
Consequently, about 95 percent of the asylum applications of migrants from these countries are rejected. Furthermore, the number of Libyans, whose country is going through a long-standing civil war, is only a negligible part of the migrant wave.
At the same time, Leubecher acknowledged that the number of migrants coming to Italy and Greece, both across the Mediterranean and the Aegean Sea, is on the rise.
However, many migrants stay in Europe, even though they are not granted asylum or refugee status. Deportations also do not offer a permanent solution as many of the migrants simply come back to Europe after being deported. Since 2012, German authorities registered 28,283 such cases. About 5,000 of these migrants then returned to the country after being deported more than once.
Data of the German Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) from 2018 further confirm the verity of Leubecher’s article as the BAMF acknowledged that only a small portion of asylum seekers from Africa, who are not granted asylum, has been deported from Germany.
Last month, a report concerning this situation in the United Kingdom revealed similar conclusions as only 15 percent of migrants illegally entering the country were deported.
