TIRANA, Sept. 2 – Albania, Kosovo and Serbia sent a combined 75,000 asylum seekers to Germany in the first seven months of the year, with 30,000 from Albania alone, according to German officials.
President of the German Federal Office for Migration and Refugees Manfred Schmidt said that errors had been made in the original assessment of the likely influx into Germany from the Western Balkans.
“We have begun too late, (we have) seen the sign too late. At the beginning of the year, no one had expected such figures,” said Schmidt an interview with Bavarian Radio published on Sunday.
According to Schmidt, 30,000 asylum seekers from Kosovo, 30,000 from Albania and 15,000 from Serbia crowded into Germany within a few weeks, which means that there were more migrants from this region than from war-torn Syria during that period.
Thousands of Syrians, Iraqis and Afghans have risked their lives in the past few months in order to get to Germany.
Germany has said it will take in anyone who is fleeing war or persecution, but not people who are fleeing poverty.
Germany is expected to deport to Albania thousands of people over the next few weeks.
It will send five planes in the first three weeks this month alone.
Many of them, who have been denied asylum, will also be banned for five years to enter the Schengen area countries.
Germany has made it clear that it will accept only genuine refugees from the war zones – not from poor Balkan countries.
