EU migrants hit new monthly record - the migrants arriving at the EU’s borders by illegal means in the month of July achieved a new milestone.
EU border agency Frontex reported a record 107,500 migrants at the European Union’s borders in a month on Tuesday. “The figure was the third consecutive monthly record, jumping well past the previous high of more than 70,000 reached in June, the Warsaw-based agency said in a statement.
For the first time, the number of migrants has surpassed the 100,000 mark in a single month since the border agency began keeping records in 2008. Last month’s figure includes 50,000 migrants detected in the Aegean Sea, nearly 35,000 in the Western Balkans and more than 20,000 in Italy. More than 340,000 migrants have made the desperate journeys through the Mediterranean during the first seven months of the year, more than two-fold during the same period in 2014.
Last year, more than 600,000 people claimed asylum in the EU nations. The authorities fear that this year the asylum seekers will be more than twice as compared to 2014. Earlier this year, the German government had forecast that 450,000 refugees could arrive but is now set to increase the figure to 650,000 or higher.
The flood of asylum seekers in Germany has caused uproar nationwide and there has been a rise in attacks on the refugees. In East Germany, thousands of people staged a protest against the asylum seekers being housed in their neighborhood. The migrants are forced to live in the tent cities and converted gyms due to lack of houses.
Last month, EU member states agreed to take in 32,000 asylum seekers arriving in Italy and Greece over the next two years. The 28-member bloc has been struggling to cope with migrant arrivals in recent months. However, the EU has approved a budget of 2.4 billion Euros to help member states deal with the influx of migrants, many of them Syrians, Iraqis and Afghans fleeing instability at home. IMAGE/Reuters
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