Refugee numbers in Germany to set new record in 2015

The German government estimates that up to 800,000 people will request asylum in Germany by the end of the year, German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said on Wednesday.

This would make 2015 a record year when it comes to the number of refugees in Germany. The German Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) previously forecast 450,000 asylum applications for this year.

"This is a challenge for all of us," said de Maiziere, noting Germany should brace for higher number of refugees "for the next few years."

The minister, however, added Germany was not overwhelmed by this development and would find ways to take care of it.

The projections for 2015 are set to break the previous record of 440,000 asylum seekers in the country in 1992.

In the first seven months of 2015, some 218,000 people applied for asylum in Germany, according to the German Interior Ministry.

Over 37,500 people sought asylum in Germany in July alone, making the number a new monthly record for the country.

In addition to refugees from war-torn countries such as Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, some 40 percent of asylum seekers in 2015 have come from places in the western Balkans, including Kosovo, Albania and Serbia, showed statistics from the interior ministry.

Officials expected that more people to come to Germany in the second half of the year than in the first, many of them from the Balkan Peninsula and the Aegean Sea area.

De Maiziere said Wednesday that the high proportion of refugees coming from the Balkan region was "unacceptable" as there are others fleeing countries where they are in greater need or face worse violence and persecution.

The minister has announced a series of domestic political initiatives to deal with the record-breaking wave of refugees.

The capacity of preliminary reception centers for refugees in Germany will be increased by winter from the current 45,000 to 125,000. Four regional "decision centers" are expected to be established in the coming weeks to reduce the backlog of currently approximately 250,000 unprocessed asylum requests.

In addition, de Maiziere has promised that German local authorities would get more federal financing from next year.

The minister has also urged other European countries to take a more active role in dealing with the refugee issue.

"The asylum standards in the EU countries should be aligned. Germany cannot, on a permanent basis, take on around 40 percent of all refugees in the European Union," he said.