BERLIN
Germany is expecting to receive 800,000 asylum applications by the end of the year, four times the number of last year, Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said on Wednesday.
There were nearly 220,000 applications in the first seven months of 2015, compared to 97,000 for the same period in 2014, de Maiziere told a news conference in Berlin.
The monthly figure is set to rise through the year.
“Migration through the Aegean and the Balkans has significantly increased, particularly the situation in Greece has drastically worsened,” de Maiziere said. “And there is no sign of a positive development in conflict regions in the Middle East, North Africa and the Horn of Africa.”
Asylum applications increased by 60 percent last year on 2013, with just under 203,000 cases.
The minister said a national summit next month will consider improved financial support to the state and municipal authorities responsible for housing for migrants.
Germany is the main European destination for asylum seekers with 40 percent of all EU asylum applications made in the country. De Maiziere called on European partners to share the burden of the deepening refugee crisis.
The surge in asylum applications in Germany has fuelled anti-immigration sentiment in recent months. Far-right extremists carried out 202 attacks against asylum seekers in the first six months of the year, according to police records.
