Germany approved just under 48 per cent of asylum applications from Afghan migrants in the first two months of 2017, down from close to 78 per cent in 2015, the Passauer Neue Presse German eports.
The report on Sunday, citing a response from the German interior ministry to a parliamentary query by the Left party, said the government rejected 14,403 of the 27,639 asylum applications considered in January and February.
It said the approval rate had dropped to just over 60 per cent in 2016 and fallen further this year. The rate is lower than the 55 per cent identified by German Chancellor Angela Merkel this month.
News of the drop comes after a report that thousands of former Taliban fighters may have entered Germany over the past two years among an influx of more than a million migrants and refugees, prompting investigations by federal prosecutors.
Ulla Jelpke, a Left party lawmaker, criticised the government's tougher stance on asylum approvals for Afghan migrants at a time when the security situation was worsening.
"It's a result of political orders to increase deportations and send a warning signal," she told the newspaper.
Merkel's government, under fire for allowing in large numbers of migrants, especially after several militant attacks linked to migrants last year, has been actively deporting groups of rejected Afghan asylum-seekers.
Merkel, seeking a fourth term in a September 24 election, this month defended increased deportations of rejected Afghan asylum-seekers, saying all other European Union countries were doing the same.
At the time, she said about 55 per cent of Afghans were granted refugee status in Germany.
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