Germany Expects Less Than 300,000 Refugee Arrivals in 2016

The head of the German Federal Office for Migration and Refugees said that no more than 300,000 refugees will come to Germany this year.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — No more than 300,000 refugees will come to Germany this year, Frank-Jurgen Weise, head of the German Federal Office for Migration and Refugees, said Sunday.

"We can guarantee optimal operation with up to 300 000 refugees. If more people come, [we] will come under pressure… But I think even a little less than 300 000 people will come this year," Weise told the Bild am Sonntag newspaper in an interview.

He added that less than one million refugees had come to the country last year, 70 percent of whom were capable of working.

Europe is struggling to find a solution to the massive refugee crisis, with hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing conflict-torn countries in the Middle East and North Africa in order to reach stable and wealthy European countries such as Germany.

EU border agency Frontex detected over 1.83 million illegal border crossings in 2015, in contrast to some 283,000 in 2014.