BERLIN
Germany has received 181,453 asylum applications since January this year, an increase of 57 percent compared with the same period last year, the German Interior Ministry announced Monday.
Syrian refugees fleeing the violence of civil war have been the largest group among the asylum seekers.
A total of 35,729 Syrians have applied for asylum in the past eleven months, and 88.7 percent of them were accepted, the ministry said.
Asylum applications by Syrians continued to rise, increasing to 5,225 in November from 5,065 in October. The number of Syrian asylum seekers was 4,305 in September.
After Syria, the main countries of origin of asylum seekers were Serbia, Eritrea, Afghanistan, Iraq, Macedonia, Bosnia Herzegovina, Albania, Kosovo and Somalia.
Since January, 23,731 asylum applications were made by Serbian citizens, followed by 12,467 applications from Eritrea, 8,808 from Afghanistan, 8,547 from Iraq and 8,197 from Macedonia.
But German authorities have rejected the majority of the asylum from applications from Balkan countries.
Since January, 11,536 applications from Serbia, 3,454 applications from Bosnia Herzegovina, 4,749 applications from Macedonia and 2,648 applications from Albania were rejected.
The ministry did not provide detailed information on the reasons for these rejections, but in recent months German politicians said that majority of asylum applications were economically motivated.
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