Germany needs to do a better job of controlling irregular immigration, says economy minister Christian Lindner in an interview published today.

More migrants whose asylum applications have been rejected must be deported, Mr Lindner stressed in an interview with the t-online news site.

Germany is not doing enough to control migrant flows, “we are not sufficiently preventing irregular immigration”, insists the economy minister and leader of the Free Democrats (FDP), one of the three parties in the governing coalition.

“What we don’t need is irregular immigration, which despite being illegal leads to permanent residence and social benefits.”

Still, for Mr. Lindner, it must be made easier for qualified immigrants who want to go to work in Germany to do so, by having their degrees recognized, for example.

On the other hand, he states, it is important for Berlin to show greater “decisiveness” against irregular immigrants.

The number of people seeking asylum in Germany in 2022 reached 217,774, up 47% year-on-year and the highest in any year since 2016, according to data from the Federal Office for Migration and Asylum (BAMF).

Most applicants originate from Syria (70,976), Afghanistan (36,358) and Turkey (23,938).

However, the more than one million refugees who fled Ukraine due to Russia’s military invasion and have been hosted by Germany since the end of February 2022 did not have to apply for asylum, they were automatically offered temporary international protection under an EU directive.

Recently, municipalities in Germany have been complaining that their capacity to receive immigrants has been exhausted.