About 35,000 people have been refused entry to Germany since May 2025. This was announced by the Ministry of the Interior, quoted by DPA.
Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt stepped up border controls a year ago, immediately after Chancellor Friedrich Merz's government took power.
Dobrindt instructed the federal police, which is responsible for border checks, to reject asylum seekers, with the exception of the sick, pregnant women and those in need of special assistance.
Previously, only people without an asylum application and foreign nationals who have been banned from re-entry were rejected.
The federal police have registered 47,659 illegal entries since May 8 last year. Of these, 294 people from vulnerable groups have applied for asylum, while 1,415 people traffickers and 8,842 people for whom arrest warrants were issued have been detained.
In addition, the police have found 1,581 political extremists, while the rest have been turned back at the border.
Dobrindt has repeatedly defended the stricter measures as an indication of a changed migration policy and as a serious blow to human trafficking gangs.
In April, the number of asylum applications fell for the first time compared to the same month last year. The change is in line with a European trend. Dobrindt is seeking to reform the EU's migration system before abolishing border controls.
The new Common European Asylum System (CEAS) comes into force on 12 June. Most EU countries, along with Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland, belong to the Schengen area of free travel, in which border controls have been largely abolished.