9 December 2015, 07:45 GMT
MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Of the 412,800 first-time applications lodged during the third quarter, over half of the applicants were originally from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, Eurostat's press release said, quoting the directorate's asylum quarterly report. Syrians make up the single largest group of asylum seekers, with 138,000 registered, a third of the total. Iraqis and Afghans numbered 44,500 and 56,500 respectively. Other common countries of origin included Albania, Pakistan, Eritrea, Nigeria and Somalia.
The bulk of the applicants applied for asylum in Germany and Hungary, with each country receiving 26 percent of the total applications. Hungary shouldered the largest burden among all the EU states in terms of per capita applications, with 10,974 applicants per million inhabitants.
Europe's migrant crisis intensified in early 2015, when thousands migrants from the Middle East and Africa began to arrive in the continent, mainly across the Mediterranean Sea.
On Monday, German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said over 950,000 people had received or applied for refugee status in Germany so far this year. Germany's initial forecast of 800,000 refugees was exceeded due to an intensified refugee influx since mid-August.
