EU Refugee Crisis: Asylum Applications Up 85% Compared To Last Year

In April through June this year, the European Union received an 85 percent jump in asylum applications over the same time last year. Of the 213,200 applications received in the quarter, one-third of the applications came from Syria and Afghanistan, Eurostat, the agency that provides statistical data for the European Union, reported Friday.

Most of those seeking asylum applied to go to Germany, which received 80,900 applications, or 38 percent of the total. Germany was followed by Hungary with 32,700, and Austria ranked third with 17,400. Italy, France and Sweden also received sizable numbers of applications.

While Hungary received only the second-highest number of applications, it received the most compared to its population with 3,317 requests per 1 million people, according to the release.

Many Syrian refugees have been trying to escape their war-torn country as the Islamic State group, commonly known as ISIS, has gained ground. About 4 million Syrians have left their country since the civil war began four years ago.

Many of these refugees first tried to reach countries bordering Syria in the Middle East, but recently Europe has seen those numbers surge. Refugees' desperation to leave Syria has forced European countries to deal with the massive influx.

Many European countries have been reinforcing their borders in recent weeks, and Germany has been instituting stricter border control measures, according to Sputnik.

The European Police Office, or Europol, has been tracking about 30,000 people suspected of smuggling Syrian refugees into Europe. Two Syrian men were recently arrested for smuggling hundreds of refugees into the Netherlands through Austria, Greece and Hungary.