German authorities have approved 55 asylum applications from Russian citizens who fled the country because of the mobilization. 88 requests of this type have been rejected, more than 1,500 are being examined. This is reported by Redaktions Netzwerk Deutschland with reference to data from the German Interior Ministry, the publication was told by the Current Time channel.
In total, since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine until the end of April 2023, 2,485 Russian citizens have applied for asylum, who left for fear of being mobilized. At the end of April, decisions were made on 814 applications: 671 Russians were informed by the German authorities that their application had to be examined by the countries of first entry into the European Union.
In September last year, after the announcement of mobilization in Russia, a number of German ministers announced that Germany would grant temporary asylum to Russian citizens who avoid mobilization. “Deserts at risk of serious reprisals can benefit from international protection in Germany,” Interior Minister Nancy Feather said.
At the same time, several EU countries, such as the Czech Republic, Estonia and Latvia, have opposed granting protection to draft dodgers. Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky said failure to comply with state legal requirements does not qualify for the issuance of a humanitarian visa.
According to Estonian Prime Minister Kai Kallas, the country will not grant asylum to Russian men, because they “should come out (inside Russia) and declare that they are against this war”. Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics said the country would not issue visas to scammers “for security reasons”.
The Scandinavian EU countries and Finland have asked for clarification on whether escape is a sufficient basis for seeking asylum in the EU. In May, Finnish public broadcaster Yle reported that without an articulated position from the European Union, Helsinki could not take the decision to grant asylum to 1,109 Russians. The total number of such applications filed in all EU countries has not been disclosed.
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