More than six million migrants living around the Mediterranean are believed to be aiming to come to Europe, according to a German government paper.
The confidential document reports that in three months the total number of potential asylum-seekers waiting for their chance to cross the Mediterranean has risen by 12 per cent from 5.95 million to 6.6 million.
Up to 3.3 million people, many fleeing the conflict in Syria, were said to be camped in Turkey. They were only being held back by a European Union deal to pay Turkish authorities to retain them, an agreement under huge pressure from deteriorating relations between Ankara and Brussels.
The figures, seen by Bild, the German newspaper, record those people who were living temporarily in seven countries
