Berlin, May 23 (IANS): Data released on Sunday by Germany's refugee authorities revealed that they were unable to determine the origins of more than 470 asylum seekers last year.

That was out of a group of 4,535 who, according to the asylum statistics, had an "unclear" origin for the purposes of their asylum applications, dpa news agency quoted the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) as saying.

However, the "unclear" status is misleading, as most of these people are Kurds or Arabs, the latter predominantly Palestinians, who have demonstrably or "credibly resided in a state without possessing the nationality in question", a spokesperson said.

In these cases, the security situation in the respective country, for example Syria, is the decisive factor for the asylum decision.

For example, Palestinians living as refugees in Syria can exercise almost all civil rights there.

As a rule, however, they do not receive Syrian citizenship.

In total, 102,581 foreigners applied for asylum in Germany for the first time in 2020.

Among them were 26,520 applications for protection involving children under the age of one born in Germany.