Germany seeks to stop influx of asylum seekers from Colombia
Growing numbers of Colombian citizens have been applying for asylum in Germany, even though their odds of actually being granted asylum by German authorities have been close to zero.
Now the German government hopes to convince Colombians that they have little chance to move to Germany as refugees – while also encouraging Colombians with in-demand job skills to apply for work visas instead.
Joachim Stamp, Germany’s special representative for migration agreements, arrived in Colombia on Tuesday for talks with the Colombian government about immigration issues.
“In Bogota, we will also publicly point out that the right of asylum is not a suitable route into the German labour market,” Stamp told dpa in Berlin before his departure.
In the first 11 months of this year, a total of 3,510 Colombians filed initial applications for asylum in Germany. That puts Colombia in ninth place on the list of countries of origin with the highest number of applications in Germany.
As recently as 2018, the total number of Colombians claiming asylum in Germany was just 133, according to the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees.
But the recognition rate for people from Colombia has recently stood at just 0.4%.
Many people from Colombia who took the asylum route actually would have been eligible for regular labour migration to Germany, said Stamp.
Stamp said his goal is “to quickly reduce the number of asylum applications with no prospect of success.”