US Tops Germany as Largest Receiver of New Asylum Requests

The United States surpassed Germany to become the world’s leading receiver of new asylum applications, according to a new report by the U.N. Refugee Agency.

More than 331,000 refugees submitted new applications for asylum to the United States in 2017, a 27 percent increase compared to last year, according to the Global Trends report published on June 19.

Meanwhile, new applications in Germany fell by 73 percent in 2017 to 198,300, sending the United States to the top of the list for the first time since 2012.

The latest numbers were released one day after President Donald Trump wrote a message on Twitter linking mass migration in Germany and Europe to a rise in violent crime.

“The people of Germany are turning against their leadership as migration is rocking the already tenuous Berlin coalition,” Trump wrote on Twitter on June 18. “Crime in Germany is way up. Big mistake made all over Europe in allowing millions of people in who have so strongly and violently changed their culture!”

On June 19, Trump followed up with a message doubting Germany’s official crime statistics.

“Crime in Germany is up 10% plus (officials do not want to report these crimes) since migrants were accepted. Others countries are even worse,” Trump wrote. “Be smart America!”

According to the official statistics, the number of crimes in Germany has declined significantly. The police crime statistics presented by Federal Interior Minister Horst Seehofer in May show 5.76 million offenses last year, the lowest level since 1992.

Though the interior minister’s release was preceded by a flood of reports of the good news that Germany is now safer than it has been since 1992, some in Germany doubt the rosy figures.

The interior minister’s report doesn’t include politically motivated crimes, violations of state laws, administrative offenses, some traffic offenses, and terrorism.

When violent crime spiked in Germany in 2016, a review of the statistics by the Die Zeit newspaper attributed the increase to the refugee crisis.

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