More and more refugees and smugglers with Turkish citizenship are being picked up on Germany's borders. This is evidenced by data from the German federal police, which was provided in response to an enquiry from
DW.
In the first nine months of this year alone, German police officers apprehended 5,362 Turkish citizens at the border after they entered Germany illegally. The total number in the whole of last year was 2,531. And in 2020, when traveling was restricted on account of the pandemic, the number was 1,629.
According to the federal police headquarters in Munich, the number of Turkish refugees arriving between January and September 2022 was 254% higher than in the same period the previous year. The increase compared to the same period from 2020 was 368%.
The number of smugglers with Turkish citizenship has also increased. According to the federal police, 185 were picked up in the first nine months of this year. This number was 111 for the whole of 2021, and just 56 in 2020.
The data shows that the refugees are coming to Germany via the Balkan route, at a cost of between €6,000 and 8,000 per person. So why are more and more people from Turkey making this dangerous journey?