Germany expects 800,000 asylum seekers this year

Berlin

GERMANY expects as many as 800,000 asylum seekers or refugees this year, four times the number who came last year, Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière said in announcing new actions to cope with the biggest influx since the aftermath of World War II.

While Germany will work to process asylum applications faster, change procedures and increase accommodation for new arrivals, "it is also time for European solutions, and it is time to think how we can bring down such numbers for Germany in future", the minister said at a news conference.