Germany: At least 1 million asylum applications to be processed in 2016 - BAMF chief

Germany's Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) is expected to process at least one million asylum applications during 2016, the department's chief Frank-Jurgen Weise announced during a press conference in Berlin, Friday.
Discussing the numbers further, Weise said that out of that one million, 370,000 applications were made in 2015 but not yet decided upon and between 300,000 and 400,000 people had yet to register and begin their application process. The BAMF chief also noted that their was a degree of uncertainty about the exact figure as many asylum seekers had moved on to other countries or been registered twice in Germany.
"We have 370,000 open applications, we have between a 300,000 and 400,000 gap of people who are here but not yet registered. It is not an exact number because people who have arrived have travelled further to Sweden, to the Netherlands. There are guaranteed many double recordings at the municipality or the state police. There are also those who have not yet been recorded, this is why there is still an uncertainty," Weise stated.
"If I add in that more people will be arriving this year, then it is definite that the work, which we have as a federal agency, contains more than one million," he concluded.
On Thursday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel announced that Germany was pledging a package of aid funds totalling €2.3 billion ($2.6 billion) to help alleviate the humanitarian crisis in Syria.