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 The U.N. refugee agency UNHCR called for more cohesive asylum
policies to deal with the growing numbers.
Many are refugees from Syria, driven to make the voyage by
intensified fighting there and worsening conditions for refugees in
surrounding countries due to funding shortfalls in aid programs,
UNHCR said. Hundreds have died at sea.
"In 2015, UNHCR anticipates that approximately 400,000 new arrivals
will seek international protection in Europe via the Mediterranean.
In 2016 this number could reach 450,000 or more," it said in an
appeal document.
Spokesman William Spindler said the prediction for this year was
close to being fulfilled, with 366,000 having already made the
voyage. The total will depend on whether migrants stop attempting
the journey as the weather gets colder and the seas more dangerous.
So far, the numbers do not appear to have slowed down, with many
appearing spurred on by Germany's announcement that it will ease the
rules for Syrians seeking refuge who first reach the European Union
through other countries.
 A single-day record 7,000 Syrian refugees arrived in the former
Yugoslav republic of Macedonia on Monday, while 30,000 are on Greek
islands, most of them on Lesbos, it said.
Many arrive first in Greece, then leave the EU to travel up through
the Balkans to Hungary and onward to Germany.
"So obviously the discussions this week in Europe are taking even on
greater urgency because it obviously cannot be a German solution to
a European problem," UNHCR spokeswoman Melissa Fleming told a news
briefing.
UNHCR chief Antonio Guterres called for an increase in the number of
legal ways for refugees to come to Europe, such as an increase in
number of visas and ways to reunite people with their families.
Germany told its European partners on Monday they must take in more
refugees as it handles record numbers of asylum seekers.
The European Union's executive Commission is expected to unveil a
program this week that would redistribute 160,000 asylum seekers who
arrive in Italy, Hungary and Greece.
Peter Sutherland, special representative of the U.N.
secretary-general for migration and development, called for a
"harmonized system" and "fair allocation" in the European Union.
He said Europe's "Dublin rules" requiring asylum seekers to apply in
the first EU country they reach would have to be amended, or they
could jeopardize the principles of border control-free travel in the
bloc's Schengen zone.
"Coherence is going to require leadership and leadership before we
see the destruction of great achievements like the Schengen
agreement," he warned. "I think Dublin doesn't work."
GLOBAL RESPONSE
Other countries - including the United States, wealthy Gulf states
and Japan - must face their responsibilities, he said.
The White House on Tuesday said it was considering steps to ease the
crisis. Spokesman Josh Earnest declined to discuss the options at a
briefing with reporters but said: "Everyone is well aware of the
sense of urgency."
 Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott bowed to pressure from critics
on Wednesday and said Australia would accept 12,000 refugees from
Syria on top of its current humanitarian intake quota of 13,750 -
and extend air strikes against Islamic State militants in Iraq into
Syria.
Germany's decision last month to open its doors to Syrians who
arrived elsewhere in the EU has brought the issue sharply into
focus, as did images last week of a drowned Syrian toddler washed up
on a Turkish beach, which appeared on newspaper front pages across
the continent.
Germany alone expects 800,000 asylum applications this year,
including those who have crossed the Mediterranean, others from
Balkan states and some who arrived in previous years.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Tuesday that Europe needed
to implement a joint system for dealing with asylum seekers and
agree to binding quotas on how to distribute refugees across the
continent.
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"This joint European asylum system cannot just exist on paper but
must also exist in practice. I say that because it lays out minimum
standards for accommodating refugees and the task of registering
refugees," she told a joint news conference with Swedish Prime
Minister Stefan Lofven in Berlin.
"Our responsibility is deeply moral. It is a human responsibility,"
he said. "We have to do this together. There are 28 countries in the
EU with the same responsibility."
German Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel said on Monday that if
countries in eastern Europe and elsewhere continued to resist
accepting their fair share of refugees, the Schengen system would be
at risk.
Austria meanwhile said it would improve accommodation for asylum
seekers as winter approaches and increase capacity at
refugee-processing centers in anticipation of tens of thousands of
new arrivals.
Smaller central and eastern European Union states have rejected any
mandatory quotas for taking in refugees as the European Commission
prepares to present a plan to that end.
Poland however indicated it could accept more migrants than the
2,000 it announced earlier. Spain said it was ready to accept as
many refugees as the Commission proposes, reversing course after
saying it was being asked to take too many.
Britain, which is exempt from common EU asylum policies, announced
this week it would take thousands of refugees directly from camps in
the region, but not from among those who have reached other EU
countries.
Britain has taken in fewer Syrians than other EU countries but has
given Europe's biggest donations in aid to the region, arguing that
this is more effective assistance.
Four million Syrians are registered as refugees in Turkey, Lebanon,
Jordan and Iraq. Another 8 million are displaced within Syria
itself.
UNHCR's Fleming welcomed separate offers announced by Britain and
France on Monday to take in Syrian refugees, but said reception
centers must be set up in countries including Hungary, Greece and
Italy to process asylum claims.
"Those can only work if there is a guaranteed relocation system
whereby European countries saying yes will take X number.
We believe it should be 200,000 - that's the number we believe need
relocation in Europe countries," Fleming said.
Noting that Europe has a population of half a billion, she added:
"It is a manageable situation if the political will were there."
She also appealed for more aid for UN programs for displaced Syrians
within the Middle East, saying funding problems were creating
conditions that encouraged refugees to leave the camps for Europe.
The UN World Food Programme's operation to feed Syrians costs $26
million a week, but it has cut rations to 1.3 million refugees due
to a funding shortage, spokeswoman Bettina Luescher said. "Basically
now the refugees are living on around 50 cents a day in those
countries around Syria."
(Additional reporting by Tom Miles in Geneva, John Irish in Paris;
Writing by Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Peter Graff, Giles Elgood
and Nick Macfie)
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