Germany's new asylum seeker numbers fall 35% to lowest October level since 2011

Germany registered 5,707 new asylum seekers in October, down about 35% from a year earlier and the lowest figure for the month since 2011, local media reported Wednesday.

The figure declined from 8,823 in October 2025 and 19,785 in October 2024, Die Welt reported, citing Bild newspaper, which obtained the data from the Federal Interior Ministry.

The last lower October total was recorded in 2011, when Germany registered 4,106 new asylum seekers.

Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt welcomed the decline and pledged to make the downward trend permanent.

"We are successfully pushing back illegal migration. Now it is a matter of securing this development permanently: We are regulating, managing and controlling illegal migration consistently and with a clear course – in Germany and together with our partners at the European level," Dobrindt said.

Germany has maintained border checks with all nine neighboring countries since September 2024, when the measures were introduced by Dobrindt's predecessor, Nancy Faeser.

The practice of turning back asylum seekers at the borders has drawn widespread criticism, according to the report.