By IRNA
Berlin : German authorities have reported a dramatic rise in the number of Iraqi asylum seekers who tried to enter Germany illegally last year, the weekly Spiegel news magazine said citing police statistics.
According to figures released by the Federal Police in the southwestern city of Koblenz, police caught 1,162 Iraqis by the end of September 2007 for illegally entering the country.
The latest number is more than twice as much as during the whole previous year.
Around 80 percent of Federal Police anti-crime units are reportedly dealing only with Iraqis who are usually using Germany as transit country en route from southern Europe to Scandinavia.
More than 200 phone tapping indicated also that there was very high dark number in terms of smuggling Iraqis into Germany.
German security officials fear also that Islamist terrorists could use the human trafficking networks to sneak into the country.
According official statistics, there are around 80,000 Iraqis residing in Germany, most of them being asylum seekers.