Number of new asylum seekers falls by half

The number of asylum seekers that arrived in the Netherlands last month dropped by half compared to May 2015. About a quarter of these asylum seekers came from Syria, according to figures Statistics Netherlands published on Monday. In May this year a total of 1,430 asylum seekers arrived in the Netherlands. That number includes 990 new asylum seekers and 440 people joining family members. In May last year a total of 3,245 asylum seekers arrived - 2,250 new applications and 995 people joining their families. Last year about half of the asylum seekers came from Syria. Last month the picture was more diverse - only about a quarter (360) came from Syria. Most of the rest came from Eritrea and Albania.