European Union: Arrivals and Minister Thomas

european union: In total, 80,000 people either left voluntarily or were deported, he said, according to Brandon Sun. Arrivals declined sharply with the closure of the Balkan migrant route in March and the subsequent agreement between the European Union and Turkey to stem the flow across the Aegean Sea to Greece. While new arrivals declined, Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said that the number of rejected asylum-seekers who left Germany was up though still not to authorities' satisfaction. Asylum applications have lagged well behind arrivals and many people who came to Germany in 2015 applied only last year. Those included 268,866 applications from Syrians, 127,892 from Afghans and 97,162 from Iraqis, the biggest single groups by far. Wednesday's figures showed that 745,545 formal asylum applications were made last year 268,869 more than in 2015. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.