The Russian war of aggression in Ukraine led to a sharp increase in people seeking protection in Germany last year. As reported by the Federal Statistical Office on Thursday, the number of registered people seeking protection rose by 1.14 million compared to the previous year. This highest increase within a reporting year since the statistics began in 2007 is due to the flight from Ukraine: around 1.01 million Ukrainians sought protection in Germany last year.

Foreigners seeking protection are foreigners who, according to the Central Register of Foreigners (AZR), are in Germany on grounds of international law, humanitarian or political reasons. At the end of 2022, around 3.08 million people in Germany were registered as seeking protection.

A third of those seeking protection from Ukraine were children and young people under the age of 18, almost two thirds (64 percent) were people of working age between 15 and 64 years. At almost two-thirds, the proportion of girls and women among Ukrainian asylum seekers was significantly higher than among all asylum seekers, of whom only just under half were female.

In many cases no legally binding decision

In addition to Ukrainians, most of those seeking protection came from Syria with 674,000 people, Afghanistan with 286,000 people, Iraq with 211,000 refugees and Turkey with 101,000 people seeking protection. According to the information, Russian nationals made up the seventh largest group of people seeking protection with 69,000 people. Compared to 2021, their number increased by nine percent or 5900 people.

Most of the registered people seeking protection, namely around 2.25 million people, had a humanitarian residence permit and thus had recognized protection status. The most common was temporary protection under the European Union's so-called "Mass Influx Directive". A total of 724,000 refugees received this status, including 703,000 Ukrainians.

At the end of 2022, around 570,000 people had not yet received a final decision on their protection status, including 271,000 Ukrainians. More than a quarter of a million people - a total of 255,000 people seeking protection - were registered at the end of 2022 after being rejected in the asylum procedure or after losing their protection status with rejected protection status and were therefore obliged to leave the country. Among them were 219,000 people with a Duldung.

Based on the population of the federal states, at the end of 2022 most of those seeking protection lived in the city states of Bremen with a share of 6.3 percent of the population, Hamburg (4.8 percent) and Berlin (4.8 percent). The proportions were lowest in Bavaria (2.8 percent), Brandenburg (2.8 percent) and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania (2.9 percent).