Migration · Berlin

Germany records lowest October asylum intake since 2011, with 5,707 new applications

Germany registered 5,707 new asylum arrivals in October 2026, the lowest October total since 2011. Illegal border crossings also fell to 3,270 that month, the lowest monthly figure this year.

AI text based on reports by Deutsche Welle, N-tv and DIE WELT. Published on 5 Nov at 01:42. How it is made

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In brief

Berlin · Germany

How it came to this

September 2024Border controls with all neighbouring countries begin, introduced under Nancy Faeser
May 2025Merz government takes office and begins its migration turnaround
June 2026The new Common European Asylum System (GEAS) enters into force
October 2026Asylum arrivals fall to 5,707, the lowest October figure since 2011

Arrivals fall to the lowest October level since 2011

The German Interior Ministry counted 5,707 people registered under the asylum procedure in October 2026, figures first reported by Bild and confirmed by a ministry spokeswoman to AFP on Wednesday, 4 November. That is the lowest October figure since 2011, when 4,106 were recorded, according to WELT. Compared with October 2024, when 19,785 arrivals were counted, the number is down by almost 70%. Sources differ on the year-earlier baseline: DW reports a 40% fall from October 2025, while WELT gives 8,823 arrivals for October 2025 and a drop of about 35%.

Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt, a CSU politician, described the figures as a change of trend and said the government wants to lock it in. He told Bild:

“We are successfully pushing back illegal migration.”

Alexander Dobrindt, german Federal Interior Minister

October asylum applications and arrivals in selected yearspeople

Data from the article text

Border crossings and turnbacks

Illegal border crossings also fell. Federal police recorded 3,270 cases in October, down from 3,668 in September, and the lowest monthly figure in more than five years, with fewer cases last recorded in January, February and May 2021. Across the first ten months of the year, federal police counted 40,193 illegal entries at land, air and sea borders. That is 12,745 fewer than in the same period a year earlier, a decline of about 24%.

Since the CDU/CSU and SPD coalition took office in May 2025, 47,551 people have been turned back at the German border. A further 2,432 people were stopped because an existing re-entry ban applied to them. Turnbacks of asylum seekers at the border have drawn widespread criticism, according to WELT.

Illegal border crossings in Germany, September and October 2026cases

Data from the article text

Policy behind the decline

Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) and his coalition began what they called a migration turnaround after taking office in May 2025. Dobrindt ordered tighter checks at borders with neighbouring countries and the rejection of migrants at the border. Germany has run border controls with all of its neighbours since September 2024, a measure introduced under his predecessor Nancy Faeser (SPD). Before that, Germany had already introduced controls on its borders with Poland, the Czech Republic, Austria and Switzerland, citing the migration situation.

The new Common European Asylum System (GEAS) entered into force in June 2026. The EU aims to harmonise asylum procedures, check external borders more strictly and steer migration more effectively. Dobrindt says the government now wants to make the decline lasting, working with European partners to bring order, control and direction to illegal migration.

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