Asylum numbers in Germany drop by 16.5 percent in 2018 Germany's top migration official says the number of asylum applications has dropped to 185,853 in 2018 _ a decrease of 16.5 percent or 36,830 cases compared to the year before

BERLIN -- Germany's top migration official says the number of asylum applications has dropped to 185,853 in 2018 — a decrease of 16.5 percent compared to the year before.

Interior Minister Horst Seehofer told reporters Wednesday that Germany saw 36,830 fewer applications, which he said showed the success of the different measures the government had taken since the dramatic influx of more than 1 million migrants in 2015-16.

Seehofer said among the measures that helped decrease the number of migrants were shorter processing times, more deportations and voluntary repatriations as well as multinational agreements like the EU-Turkey accord that keeps asylum seekers from entering Europe in the first place.

As in past years, Syria was the number one country of origin of asylum seekers with 46,164 applications, followed by Iraq and Afghanistan.