The Latest: Sweden expects 140,000 asylum-seekers this year
PARIS (AP) - The Latest on migrants seeking sanctuary in Europe (all times local):
1:15 p.m.
Sweden's immigration agency says up to 140,000 people could seek shelter this year in the Scandinavian country that was one of the top destinations for asylum-seekers in Europe in 2015.
The Migrationsverket agency says it expects that 27,000 of them could be unaccompanied minors.
Agency chief Anders Danielsson said Thursday the 2016 forecast is based "on political decisions and actions at EU level and in Sweden."
He added "it is hardly possible to speak of a forecast anymore."
Last year, Sweden received nearly 163,000 arrivals. Some 35,400 of those were unaccompanied minors, with about 66 percent being Afghans. The country has experienced a sharp drop in newcomers since photo ID checks were introduced this month.
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12:15 p.m.
Czech police say they detained a total of 8,563 illegal migrants in the country in 2015, 3,741 more than the previous year.
Milan Majer, the chief officer of the police immigration unit, says most of them, almost 25 percent, were Syrian refugees.
The Czech Republic isn't part of the so-called Balkan route used on the way to Germany and other rich Western countries as migrants flee war and poverty.
In connection with the influx, Czech police say they arrested 118 migrant smugglers last year, 114 more than in 2014.
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10:50 a.m.
France's top security official said investigators have dismantled 25 migrant smuggling networks in the country's north in the past year.
Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said about 700 people were involved in the networks in the Calais region, temporary home to about 4,000 migrants camped in squalid conditions on the edge of the Channel in hopes of slipping across to a better life in England.
Speaking Thursday to Europe 1 radio, Cazeneuve also defended his ban on protests in Calais, which he said was imposed in response to a demonstration in support of migrants that ended with a group of people breaking into the port and boarding a ship. He said the unrest showed the risks were too great of confrontations involving both pro-migrant activists, and extremists on the right.
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8:30 a.m.
The German government says more than 91,000 asylum seekers arrived last month, underlining the pressure the country faces to diminish the influx of migrants.
The Interior Ministry said Thursday that 91,671 people were registered as asylum seekers in January. That's lower than the 127,320 who arrived in December; officials have said that winter weather was the driving force behind the decline.
In all, Germany saw nearly 1.1 million people arrive last year, and officials are keen to ensure that the figures are lower this year. Chancellor Angela Merkel insists that diplomacy is the key to a solution, and has resisted pressure for unilateral measures such as a cap on refugee numbers. However, the government has moved to toughen asylum policies.
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The item timed at 1:15 p.m. has been corrected to show that 163,000 people arrived in Sweden in 2015, not 163 million.