Germany turns away nearly 20,000 migrants at borders in 2016, as 55,000 leaves voluntarily

According to media reports released on Wednesday, December, 28, 2016, official statistics showed that the number of migrants turned away by police at Germany's borders doubled by 100 per cent, while voluntarily deportations was also on the rise.

A report by German newspaper, the Neue Osnabruecker Zeitung (NOZ) who cited figures from the German Federal Police, showed that from January - November, this year, about 19,720 people were stopped from entering the country through the country's borders, including airports and sea ports. 

The news paper added that statistics for December are yet to be included.

And according to a report by the daily "Süddeutsche Zeitung,"so far this year, around 55,000 migrants voluntarily left Germany to return to their country of origin, the largest number in 16 years which nearly double the estimated 25,000 forced deportations carried out so far this year.

The numbers for 2016 represents more than 100 per cent increase in comparison to 2015, when 8913 migrants were stopped from entering the country.

According to the report, more than 3695 Afghan asylum seekers were turned back representing the highest number of rejection, followed by 2142 Syrians, 1794 Iraqis and 1237 Nigerians.

Among the 55,000 migrants who voluntarily returned back to their native country, the most came from the western Balkans, with around 15,000 people returning to Albania which was followed by another 5,000 migrants each from Serbia, Kosovo and Iraq. (These figures are based on internal documents from the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF)).

Source: Deutsche Presse Agentur