More than 1.3 million refugees applied for asylum in the European Union, Norway, and Switzerland last year, the Pew Research Center reports, nearly twice the previous record year of 1992, when 697,000 refugees sought asylum.
The dramatic spike in refugees pouring into Europe correlates with the exodus of hundreds of thousands of people from three war-torn countries: Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan. Migrants from these three predominantly Islamic states made up roughly half of all refugees in the EU, Norway, and Switzerland in 2015.
Frustration with the rising tide of migration has led to widespread criticism of the European Union’s handling of immigration and the refugee issue, with large majorities in EU-member states unsatisfied with the status quo. READ MORE
