More than 30,000 people seek asylum in Norway in 2015

A total of 31,145 asylum seekers came to Norway in 2015 and the Nordic country is planning to prepare for up to 60,000 more this year, the country's immigration agency said on Thursday.

The year 2015 was a record year in terms of number of asylum seekers as the previous record year was 2002 when 17,480 asylum seekers arrived in Norway, the Norwegian Directorate of Immigration (UDI) said in a statement.

Most of the asylum seekers were from Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq and Eritrea and a total of 21,774, nearly 70 percent, came in the months of September, October and November.

Among them, 5,297 were unaccompanied minors and 65 percent of them came from Afghanistan, UDI chief Frode Forfang said, adding that taking care of the unaccompanied minors was a major challenge for the immigration agency.

He said there was considerable uncertainty about the number of asylum seekers this year as several countries have launched a number of measures to stem the growing influx in Europe, including border controls.

"I previously suggested anywhere between 10,000 and 100,000 asylum (asylum seekers in 2016), but there have been new developments since this was stated. The government has proposed a number of measures. In addition, we see a large number of measures in several countries, including border controls," Forfang said.

"The developments make the upper side of the estimate appear to be considerably less likely. We are now planning for up to 50,000 to 60,000 asylum seekers," he said. Endit