Germany has deported a record number of 8,658 asylum seekers to other European Union (EU)members from January to the end of November in 2018, according to a response by the Interior Ministry to an inquiry by Germany's left party (Die Linke) on Monday, local media reported.

In return, Germany received a total of 7,205 refugees from other EU members in 2018. Nearly half of them were emigrated from Greece, according to the report.

In 2018, every third asylum application at the German migration office BAMF was a so-called Dublin case. According to the EU's Dublin regulation, the member, in which the asylum seeker was first registered after arrival in Europe, is responsible for the asylum application.

In 51,558 cases, Germany's migration office requested migrants to be returned, of which 35,375 were approved by the responsible member.

Almost a third of asylum seekers that were returned by Germany were sent to Italy, while Hungary received none of the refugees that were deported from Germany in 2018.

Germany temporarily had halted the Dublin regulation in August 2015 around the Syrian refugee crisis and accepted Syrian asylum seekers even if they had first been registered in another EU state.