Mostly True, but misleading: “Many Member States are looking for innovative strategies to prevent irregular migration”

In a letter dated June 25, 2024, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen claimed: “Many Member States are looking at innovative strategies to prevent irregular migration by tackling asylum applications further from the EU’s external borders.” However, a closer examination shows that very few countries are actively pursuing such plans and concrete results are…

mostly false

Mostly false: Permanent border controls are “a necessity” in order to “limit irregular migration to Germany”.

On July 12, 2024, the now former FDP Secretary General Bijan Djir-Sarai urged an extension of the border controls that were carried out in Germany during the European Championships in an interview with SPIEGEL. He justified this to SPIEGEL by saying that permanent controls were “a necessity” in order to “limit irregular migration to Germany”.…

True: “Number of asylum applications declined notably in February”

On March 7, 2024 the German news program “Tagesschau” released an article about the current number of asylum applications, revealing a notable decline in first-time applications for asylum in February. This claim is true. The article states that the number of first-time applications for asylum have decreased in comparison to last year. There were 19.494…

False: “Every second immigrant who comes to Germany has no right to protection at all, but can usually still stay and receive social benefits”

On May 11th, German politician Sahra Wagenknecht from the BSW – Reason and Justice party said in an interview: “Every second immigrant who comes to Germany has no right to protection at all, but can usually still stay and receive social benefits.” The claim turns out to be false. Wagenknecht uses a type of framing…

mostly false

Mostly False: 680,000 Libyan migrants will arrive in Europe specifically Germany

In a Facebook post from March 21st, 2023, German AFD politician Jonas Dünzel claimed that 680,000 migrants are waiting in Libya to continue their journey to Europe, specifically Germany. This statement is mostly false as there are 680,000 migrants currently on route through Libya, however, Germany is currently not listed as a destination. The claim…

False: “300,000 rejected asylum seekers receive full welfare benefits”

Friedrich Merz, Federal Chairman of the Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU), said in an interview on the Television show “Welt Talk”: “People go crazy when they see that 300,000 asylum seekers are rejected, don’t leave the country, get the full benefits, get the full welfare benefits.” After checking the facts, it turns out that…