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Migrants pour into Sweden as European influx rises

Xinhua, September 3, 2015 Adjust font size:

Sweden's monthly influx of asylum seekers soared in August to levels last seen more than 20 years ago, local media reported on Wednesday.

Swedish authorities received nearly 12,000 asylum applications last month, a 50-percent increase on July and a figure only topped by peak inflows during the Balkan wars in the early 1990s.

"We've had an unexpected heavy inflow from Turkey to Greece, then further north through Macedonia and Serbia into Hungary," Anders Westerlund at the Migration Agency told news agency TT.

Westerlund said there is "high pressure" on application centers, with the southern city of Malmo admitting many of the newcomers.

The agency said in July it expected up to 80,000 asylum applicants to enter the country this year but Westerlund said that estimate could rise in the fall.

"We see figures on the increase in all of Europe. That makes it natural for our own estimates to rise," he said.

Sweden welcomed more asylum applicants per capita than any other European Union country in 2014 and is on course to do the same this year. Endit