Germany is expected to receive a record number of between 650,000 and 750,000 asylum seekers in 2015, a media report said. The German newspaper Handelsblatt reported Tuesday that the Interior Ministry will raise it's earlier refugee forecast of 500,000 this year up to 750,000, according to TV Newsroom. The Interior Ministry had earlier forecast that 500,000 refugees could arrive this year.
Germany received some 179,000 refugees in the first six months of 2015 while numbers have soared over the summer, reported EFE. Asylum seekers are mostly coming from Syria, Serbia and Afghanistan.
The United Nations' High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres, said more European countries should share responsibility.
"We have to spread the responsibility on more shoulders in Europe. In the long term, it is not sustainable for only two EU countries - Germany and Sweden - to take in the majority of refugees with efficient asylum structures," Antonio Guterres told German newspaper Die Welt on Tuesday, according to AFP.
"Most people who come over the Mediterranean in boats are fleeing from conflicts and persecution. All states in Europe have the moral obligation to welcome them, and they have the clear legal obligation to protect them," he said.
Europe has been facing an unprecedented migrant crisis because of refugees fleeing conflicts in the Middle East and North Africa.
The European Union's border agency Frontex said the number of migrants crossed the 100,000 mark in a single month for the first time since 2008, reported BBC.
"The figure of 107,500 migrants for July is the third consecutive monthly record, jumping well past the previous high of more than 70,000 reached in June," Frontex said.
