According to the Passauer Neue Presse, a total of 18, 300 asylum applications have been registered since January in the European Dactyloscopy (EURODAC) database. The number of applications that have been submitted during the same period last year amounted to 90,400, the newspaper added.
The so-called open-door policy, initiated by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, has prompted criticism from a number of political parties and movements that oppose migration. In October 2017, Merkel and Horst Seehofer, the respective leaders of the allied Christian Democratic Union of Germany and Christian Social Union in Bavaria, announced an agreement to reduce the inflow of migrants to 200,000 people a year.
READ MORE: Kurz: German, Austrian, Italian Mins. Form 'Axis' Against Illegal Immigration
On May 31, the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party's parliamentary faction demanded a special committee to investigate the government's migration policy be established. A similar request was made by the German Free Democratic Party's (FDP) parliamentary faction on June 4, which asked the Bundestag to create a committee dedicated to finding those responsible for the asylum management scandal.
READ MORE: Europe Should Praise Italy for Strong Sovereign Stance on Migration — French MP
