Number of Refugees Fleeing to Europe Soars to 1.3 Million
EU citizens disapprove of how the refugee crisis has been handled.
8.3.2016
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A new report from Pew Research shows that the number of refugees fleeing to Europe has jumped to 1.3 million.
Last year, Europe saw more asylum applicants than in the previous peak years of 1992 and 2002 combined. Last year's number amounts to about one-tenth of all applications received in the past 30 years in the European Union, Norway and Switzerland. About half of the 1.3 million come from only three countries: Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria – nations that have been devastated by war and conflict.
The research also shows that a majority of citizens of the EU countries disapprove of how the influx of refugees has been handled.
“The highest disapproval is in some of the places with the largest number of refugees,” Phillip Connor, research associate with the Pew Research Center.
Germany has been the "primary destination" for many of the refugees.
Since 2012, Germany has been the primary destination country for asylum seekers in Europe, receiving 442,000 asylum applications in just 2015. Measured per capita, Hungary, followed by Sweden and Austria, received the highest numbers of asylum seekers in 2015. In comparison, France and the UK received roughly the same number of applications in 2015 as in years prior to last year’s refugee surge.
The number of parent-less children has also notably increased. In 2015, the number increased by 7 percent.
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