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Wednesday, 21 October 2015 - 08:23
Record number of asylum seekers reached Netherlands last month
A record number of refugees applied for asylum in the Netherlands in September. A total of 8.4 thousand asylum seekers and people joining family members were registered, an increase of 21 percent compared to August.
This is according to figures released by Statistics Netherlands on Wednesday. This is the highest level of refugee inflow since the statistics started being recorded in 1975. Up until August, the record was in May 1999, when 5.2 thousand refugees, mostly from the former Yugoslavia, arrived in the Netherlands.
The number of Syrian asylum seekers and family members increased substantially again in September. A total of 5.2 Syrians arrived in the Netherlands in September, 62 percent of the total new refugees. The number of stateless persons - mostly Palestinians who were living in Syria - decreased. The number of Eritrean refugees also decreased - 920 in September, compared to 1.4 thousand in August.
A total of 33 thousand refugees have applied in the Netherlands so far this year - 23.5 thousand new asylum applicants, and almost 10 thousand people joining a family member. This includes 16.6 Syrians, 3.8 thousand stateless persons and 6.4 thousand Eritreans.