Public health needs of migrants, refugees and asylum seekers in Europe, 2015: Infectious disease aspects

In the first 10 months of 2015 the total number of asylum applications to the European Asylum Support Office recorded by European Union (EU) countries exceeded the 1 million mark, an unprecedented level since the establishment of the EU. Syria has been the most common country of origin of asylum applications, followed by Afghanistan and Iraq. However, these figures do not take unregistered migrants into account: in the same time period, 500 000 undocumented border crossing detections were recorded on the EU's external borders, according to Frontex.