A new report from the European Union has revealed that over half a million migrants have entered Europe in 2016, 226,000 of them are in Germany.
The media and politicians across Europe have been downplaying the number of migrants coming into Germany and the European Union with many officials saying the numbers have slowed to a “trickle.” New information from the European Asylum Support Office (EASO) has destroyed any notion that the migrant crisis is coming to an end, claiming that the numbers for the first five months of 2016 exceed the first five months of 2015 Austria’s Kronen Zeitung reports.
The EASO, in their newly released annual report Friday, say that while the number of migrants has slowed from the highs of last summer the migrant crisis shows no signs of going away. According to the report in 2015 there were around 350,000 migrants entering the European union from January to May. In 2016 that number has grown drastically to over half a million people as the Balkan route shows signs of activity and record numbers of migrants cross from North Africa into Italy on a daily basis.
According to the data gathered by the agency Syrian nationals still make up the bulk of migrants entering the European Union with 28,056 coming in May alone. Along with Afghans and Iraqis they make up some 55 percent of all migrants entering Europe followed by Balkan migrants and Africans from places like Nigeria and Eritrea.
Unaccompanied minors seem to be predominately Afghans who make up 42 percent of all underage migrants with Somali’s coming second at only eight percent of the total.
Last year Germany took the bulk of the migrants who entered Europe and the trend seems to be continuing this year as reports have come out claiming that German has accepted some 226,000 migrants so far this year. According to the German Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) the numbers of new migrants have gone down since the closure of the Balkan route but they still registered some 20,000 migrants in June. The agency also noted that they are still behind in accounting for the migrants who came to Germany last year saying there could still be up to 150,000 migrants in the country completely unaccounted for.
Despite media and politician statements the migrant crisis is still ongoing and some experts, including the EU’s own border agency Frontex, claim that the problems that led to the crisis have still not been resolved. Many have warned that the migrant flow will only increase over the summer months as alternative routes, like in Egypt, are used to smuggle migrants across the borders into Europe.