The German government ministry responsible for processing refugees and asylum seekers referred over ten thousand cases of suspicious migrants to the security services in 2017, a significant rise on the previous year.

The latest whole-year figures for the number of reports of migrants suspected of being an endangerment to the national security situation or preparing to use force was 10,597 in 2017, a fourfold rise compared to the 2,418 in 2016. This itself was already a significant rise from 2015, when there were 571.

In the 2018 year to August, there were 4,979 reports made to the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz, BfV) by the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (Bundesamt für Migration und Flüchtlinge, BAMF).

Germany Needs An Extra 2,000 Judges and Prosecutors to Process Fivefold Increase in Terror Cases https://t.co/mAkD7S0YUD — Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) December 24, 2017

The figures, reported by Germany’s Welt newspaper came to light after a request for information was made to the Federal Government by the centrist Free Democratic Party (FDP).

Responding to the figures, a government spokesman told the paper: “since October 2016 a large number of reports have been received… the majority of which are still under investigation.”

Despite the definite 2017 figure of 10,597, it is not clear how many migrants this relates to, as each individual may have theoretically been reported to the security services more than once. There are also no statistics accompanying these which tell how many of the reports were found to have merit, and how many were unfounded.

Half of terror plots in Germany were planned by asylum seekers and refugees. https://t.co/AZ5sxAxV7q — Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) August 3, 2017

This lack of supplementary information is a problem, said senior FDP MP Stephan Thomae, who told the paper: “The Federal Government has to investigate the question of whether there is something behind the increased figures… If the BfV does not even have a statistic about which tip-offs prove to be justified or baseless, the question arises whether the incoming clues are even processed or just [floating around].”

The data comes after the revelation in August that 54 per cent of terror plots in Germany since 2014 have involved asylum seekers. In 2016 alone, 60 per cent of plots in Germany either planned or realised were conducted or planned by Syrian trained militias.

Oliver JJ Lane is the editor of Breitbart London — Follow him on Twitter and Facebook