BERLIN (AP) –

Germany has deported almost twice as many failed asylum seekers this year as last.

By the end of November, authorities had deported 18,363 people whose asylum request had been rejected, compared to 10,884 in all of 2014. Most of them were from western Balkan nations.

A spokesman for the Interior Ministry says the significant rise can be partly explained by the sharp increase in the number of people seeking asylum in Germany this year.

But the spokesman, Johannes Dimroth, told reporters in Berlin on Monday that the trend is also affected “by the states’ increasing willingness to carry out these procedures.”

Bavaria, the German state that most asylum seekers first set foot in, more than trebled its deportations to 3,643 in the first 11 months from 1,007 last year.