Germany Sharply Increases Arrests of Human Traffickers

Germany has stepped up arrests of traffickers smuggling migrants into the country, with the number set to top 2,000 and near last year's total by the end of August, police said Monday.

Between January and July this year, police made 1,785 such arrests, while the figure for August was expected to reach 300 to 400, federal police told AFP, confirming a report by Bild daily.

In all of 2014, German police arrested 2,149 people suspected of illegally bringing migrants and asylum-seekers into the country.

Germany, Europe's largest economy, has become the top destination for refugees and migrants in the EU and expects to receive 800,000 asylum applications this year, four times more than in 2014.

While the government has said it welcomes refugees from war zones such as Syria, it has sought to deter or quickly reject most asylum seekers from western Balkan countries that are at peace.

Of the people smugglers arrested this year, federal police said, 227 came from Hungary, followed by Romania (147), Serbia (110), Syria (108) and Bulgaria (101).