Record value: two thirds of refugees have no ID

Border guards are grappling with this vexing issue and government agencies for many years. Without papers, they lack proof of the refugees’ origin, name and date of birth – a catastrophe, not least for security reasons. In addition, an unclear identity enormously increases the chances of refugees staying.

New figures from the Federal Ministry of the Interior, which the “Bild” newspaper now reported on, reveal how big the problem of missing identity papers is.

Accordingly, last year the authorities registered 113,236 refugees over the age of 18 who applied for asylum for the first time. Of them, 74,089 had no identity papers. That was 65.4 percent – ​​more than ever before. In 2024 the proportion was 49.9 percent, the year before it was 47.8 percent.

Since 2018, 462,000 undocumented refugees have come to us

If you look at the statistics from previous years, you can see that since 2018, a total of 897,699 first-time asylum applicants over the age of 18 have entered the country, of which 462,000 (51.5 percent) were unable to present any documents.

The proportion of unclear identities is particularly high in some countries, writes “Bild”. Accordingly, the rate of refugees from Guinea was the highest last year at 97.9 percent. Behind them are Algeria (93.9 percent), Eritrea (91.5 percent), Somalia (91.3 percent) and Iraq (71.9 percent).

Unclear identities have a major impact on the asylum process and the possible return of refugees to their homeland. The deportation of a rejected asylum seeker is only possible if his country of origin recognizes him as a citizen. As long as the country of origin doubts this, the person concerned usually receives toleration.