In Germany, 320,000 applicants for refugee status were registered in a year
As reported by Deutsche Welle, the number of such applications decreased from 91,671 in January 2016 to less than 20,000 by the end of last year after the closure of the 'Balkan route' and Brussels reaching an agreement with Turkey on refugees. In December, for example, this figure was 16,441 people.
At the same time, as the publication notes citing the European border agency Frontex, the number of illegal migrants from North African countries increased significantly last year. As experts of the 'Triton' project, whose main task is to protect EU borders and conduct rescue operations in the Mediterranean, note, refugees arrive not only from Libya, but also from Egypt, Algeria, and Tunisia.
In the EASY system (which stands for Erstverteilung der Asylbegehrenden – initial distribution of asylum seekers), refugees arriving in Germany are registered without passport data. Therefore, double registration is possible, for example. Experts also explain that some of those who crossed the border may have then left for other European countries.