A record-setting number of migrants entered the EU in July

(Image credit: Robert Atanasovski/AFP/Getty Images)

last updated 19 August 2015

In July, a record 107,500 migrants entered the European Union, with the highest concentration making their way to the Greek islands of Kos, Lesbos, Chios, and Samos.

The border agency Frontex said that since January, close to 340,000 migrants have arrived in Europe, a huge leap from the 280,000 migrants that came in 2014. A majority are from the Middle East, Time reports, leaving Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan for Turkey, then crossing the Aegean Sea into Greece.

Kirk Day, field director of the International Rescue Committee's operation in Lesbos, said in a statement the "situation is already volatile, and we have started seeing increased tensions with the local authorities and between different refugee groups." Day said he wants locals to keep in mind why the migrants are risking their lives to come to Europe: "European donors and international institutions need to stop focusing on where these refugees are, and instead remember where they are from — and what they are fleeing."

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.