More migrants arrived in Greece in July than whole of 2014 as Germany 'to expect 750,000 refugees this year'

Migrants from Burma arrive on a dinghy on the Greek island of Kos. Credit: Reuters

More refugees and migrants arrived in Greece in July than during the whole of 2014, a UN official has said.

UN High Commissioner for Refugees William Spindler said 50,242 reached the crisis-hit nation in July. In 2014, there were 33,951 arrivals by sea, according to figures from the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).

Nearly a quarter of a million migrants have reached Europe by sea so far in 2015, a number expected to rise to more than 300,000 by the end of the year.

Of those already on the continent, 160,000 have gone to Greece, where clashes erupted recently on the island of Kos. Migrants have brawled with each other and clashed with police in the summer heat.

The UN said Greece needs to show "more leadership" to tackle the crisis on its shores.

William Spindler, of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), said: "The pace of arrivals have been steadily increasing in recent weeks. More refugees and migrants arrived in Greece during the month of July - 50,242 - than during the whole of last year."

Every day, around 1,000 migrants are rescued on their way to Greece or Italy, according to the IOM.

Pakistani, Iranian and Afghani migrants scuffle outside a police station in Kos over priority at a registration queue. Credit: Reuters

The organisation said that so far this year at least 2,349 have died making the journey.

At the weekend, 49 people were found dead, thought to be from suffocation, on an overcrowded fishing boat. On Monday, rescuers found one migrant dead and saved 354 on a fishing boat near southwestern Italy.

Germany, meanwhile, is the biggest recipient of asylum seekers in the EU and is expecting 750,000 people to seek asylum there this year. By comparison, the UK received 31,000 new applications for asylum in 2014, according to the UN.

Some German cities are already struggling to cope with the influx and there has been a surge in hostility towards migrants in some areas.

The number of attacks on refugee shelters has soared, with 150 arson or other attacks that damaged or destroyed refugee shelters in the first half of the year, nearly as many as in the whole of 2014.

Migrants have clashed with police in Kos. Credit: Reuters