New October asylum requests shatter previous record by 40 pct.

The number of newly registered asylum seekers and refugees joining family members reached a record high of 11.7 thousand in October. In September there were 8.4 thousand. This is according to figures Statistics Netherlands released on Monday. There was a total of 10 thousand new asylum requests in October and 1.8 thousand refugees were allowed to join family members in the Netherlands. More than half of these asylum seekers are from Syria - 5.3 thousand newly registered asylum seekers and 1.2 thousand coming over on family reunification. The number of Iraqi refugees also showed an increase and came out at just over a thousand. Up until the end of October a massive 45.2 thousand people have applied for asylum in the Netherlands this year. That is 18 thousand more than the whole of 2014.