Fewer migrants arrive in Germany through family reunion: data

BERLIN, Jan. 4 (Xinhua) -- The number of migrants who arrived in Germany through family reunification programs for non-European Union (EU) citizens fell last year, German media reported on Thursday.

Some 85,000 migrants joined family members in Germany between January and December 2017, compared with 114,500 during the same period in the previous year, Newspaper Rheinische Post reported, citing an official response by the German government to a parliamentary enquiry launched by the Free Democratic Party (FDP).

Published figures include refugees as well as regular non-EU migrants.

At the same time, the government's reply showed that the number of migrants who accepted government aid to leave Germany voluntarily fell from 54,000 in 2016 to 30,000 in 2017. As a consequence, 230,000 individuals who did not have a right to residence and were officially duty-bound to return to their homes remained in the country last year.

However, the official statement admitted that the real number could be higher given that no estimates existed on the "dark figure" of illegal migrants who were unknown to authorities. Stephan Tomae, vice president of the FDP parliamentary faction, complained that this answer revealed that even in 2018, the government would be unable to offer "sufficiently concrete figures on family-reunification, refugee minors and illegal migrants."

Due to a sharp overall drop in the number of refugees and their family members arriving in Germany last year, many of the specially-created accommodation centers now have a low occupancy rate. Large and populous states such as North-Rhine Westphalia and Baden-Wuerttemberg reportedly have three times more places available than currently needed. Regional authorities have begun reducing excess capacity to lower their related costs, and repeatedly expressed concerns over the unpredictability of future demand. Enditem