"15,000 Serbian citizens sought asylum in Bavaria"

"15,000 Serbian citizens sought asylum in Bavaria"

It is further noted that they came not only from war-torn regions, but that one third was from the former Yugoslavia area and Albania, while "their real number could be higher," Deutsche Welle reported.

More than 70 percent of those who arrived as asylum seekers in Upper Bavaria by December 28 - about 1,400 people - came from the Western Balkans, a spokesman for the local government said.

Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann (CSU) was quoted as saying that they should be quickly sent back to their homes, "because there is no civil war there."

The German daily noted that he recently said there was no reason for "people from Belgrade" to be seeking asylum in Bavaria.

The daily noted that after their applications have been refused asylum seekers from the former Yugoslavia and Albania "try again," and that "60 percent of such requests came from citizens of these South-East European countries."