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IMMIGRATION

Germany officially hits 1m refugee registrations

With three weeks to go before the end of the year, Germany has officially seen one million people arrive in the country as asylum seekers in the course of 2015.

Germany officially hits 1m refugee registrations
A soldier speaking with two Iraqi refugees in Erding, Bavaria in November. Photo: DPA

That was the number of people registered in the “Easy” computer system and distributed across Germany, Bavarian social minister Emilia Müller of the Christian Social Union (CSU) told reporters in Munich.

In November alone, more than 200,000 people were added to the list, smashing forecasts.

But experts disagree on how exactly the Easy system reflects the actual number of asylum seekers.

Some argue that the actual numbers may be higher, as it sometimes takes several weeks for authorities to register new arrivals.

Others suggest that some asylum seekers may have been registered multiple times, and that the actual figure could well be lower.

In either case, Müller used the opportunity to push once again for her party's biggest political demand: an upper limit to refugee numbers.

“We need an upper limit, because Germany can't continue to shoulder these arrivals in the long term,” she said.