Why is EU struggling with migrants and asylum?
28 August 2015
Some 2,500 migrants have drowned in the Mediterranean this year as overcrowded boats head for the coasts of Greece and Italy, the UN says.
The flow of desperate migrants from the Middle East and Africa hoping to reach Europe is already much higher than in the same period in 2014.
Recent trends show that thousands of people are attempting a perilous route through the Western Balkans with the ultimate destination in Germany and other northern EU countries.
Here are some of the key questions surrounding the crisis.
How many people are on the move?
More than 300,000 migrants have risked their lives trying to cross the Mediterranean to Europe so far this year, according to the UN. This compares with 219,000 for the whole of 2014.
Nearly 200,000 people have landed in Greece since January this year, while another 110,000 made it to Italy.
Most of those heading for Greece take the relatively short voyage from the Turkish mainland to the islands of Kos, Chios, Lesvos and Samos - often in flimsy rubber dinghies or small wooden boats.
The voyage from Libya to Italy is longer and more hazardous.
Some of the worse tragedies in 2015 include:
Two boats carrying about 500 migrants sinking after leaving Zuwara in Libya on 27 August
Bodies of 71 people, believed to be Syrian migrants, discovered in an abandoned lorry in Austria on 27 August
Shipwreck off Italy's Lampedusa island on 19 April took an estimated 800 lives
At least 300 migrants feared to have drowned after attempting to cross the Mediterranean in rough seas in early February
Survivors often report violence and abuse by people traffickers. Many migrants pay thousands of dollars each to the traffickers, and robbery of migrants is also common.
Chaos in Libya has given traffickers freedom to exploit migrants.
The EU's external border force, Frontex, monitors the different routes migrants use and how many people are arriving at Europe's borders.
It says some 340,000 migrants have been detected at the borders since the beginning of 2015.
That compares with 123,500 in the same period last year.
Where do they come from?
The largest migrant group by nationality in 2015 is Syrians, as people flee the country's brutal civil war.
Afghans and Eritreans come next. They are often also fleeing poverty and human rights abuses.
People from Nigeria and Kosovo also make up large groups. Poor, marginalised Roma account for many of the migrants from Kosovo.
In Italy new migrants from Eritrea form the biggest group, followed by those from Nigeria.
But in Greece migrants from Syria are the biggest group, then Afghans.
Where are they going next?
Germany, which receives by far the most asylum applications in the EU, is expecting 800,000 refugees to arrive this year.
Recent trends show that thousands of people are trying to travel to both Germany and other EU countries via Greece and the Western Balkans.
Some 3,000 people are expected to cross into Macedonia each day in the coming months, according to the UN.
Many then cross into Serbia, which says it has seen 90,000 migrants so far this year, and head for Hungary and the EU's passport-free Schengen zone.
In July alone, 34,000 migrants were detected trying to cross from Serbia into Hungary.
Faced with that influx, Hungary is building a 175km (110 mile) fence in a bid to stop migrants entering.
It has also urged EU partners not to send back migrants who have travelled on from Hungary.
The Dublin Regulation places responsibility for examining an asylum seeker's claim with the first EU country that the migrant reached.
Other countries are struggling with the influx of arrivals.
Austria says it is expecting 80,000 asylum applications this year.
Meanwhile thousands of migrants are camped around Calais in northern France. Many will risk their lives smuggling themselves across the Channel into the UK.
What are politicians doing about it?
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