Increase in irregular migrants entering Germany by air

Germany’s Federal Police has reported a slight increase in irregular immigration by airplane. The majority of irregular migrants to Germany coming by air use the Schengen zone as a loophole.

According to reports published in the weekly “Welt am Sonntag” newspaper, there were 6,175 cases of irregular immigration logged at airports in the first seven months of 2019. If such attempts continue at that rate, there would be roughly 10,600 cases by the end of the year, which — when compared to last year’s figure of 10,289 such attempts — would mark a slight increase of about three percent.

The German Federal Police defines irregular immigration as any illegitimate entry into the country, including instances involving forged documents. However, the number may also be inflated, as the Federal Police say that not all asylum-seekers who claim that they arrived in Germany by airplane actually did in fact come that way.

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Some migrants opt to lie about the way they entered the country because they don’t want to mention any other EU member state which they might have crossed on land on their way to Germany, as their asylum case would be sent there under the so-called Dublin-regulation.

Schengen travel

More than half of all irregular migrants who managed to enter Germany in the first seven months of the year arrived from another member state of the Schengen-zone. The leading country from where these journeys originate is Greece, according to the Federal Police.

Most irregular migrants coming to Germany arrive on flexible tickets that are fully changeable — this way they can change their destination to another airport if there are increased immigration controls on their originally intended route.

with DPA/ © InfoMigrants