Number of migrants reaching Europe this year passes 1 million

More than 4 million Syrians have fled the conflict, creating the worst refugee crisis seen in 25 years, according to the United Nations.

Afghans accounted for 20% of the migrant flow, and Iraqis 7%.

A ‘manageable’ crisis

The startling human tide has presented European leaders, already grappling with the Eurozone debt crisis, with a fresh challenge — one that has created political rifts and thrown the European goal of border-free travel into question.

IOM Director General William Lacy Swing said the numbers were significant, but not unmanageable.

“The numbers are important, but there’s also a recognition that they’re going into a population area of 550 million,” he told CNN.

“If there were not a crisis of solidarity and leadership within the European Union, whereby others would follow the very important, courageous and visionary leadership of (German) Chancellor (Angela) Merkel and open their doors, then dispersed among 28 countries, it would have been much more manageable.”

Germany, the most economically powerful country in the European Union, has led the way in extending a welcome to migrants, becoming the destination of choice for many entering Europe.

The country is set to take in more than a million asylum seekers this year, considerably more than any other country in the European Union, and has set aside more than $6 billion to help feed and house the new arrivals.

But where Merkel has opened doors, other European leaders have put up fences.

CNN