The number of refugees fleeing across the Mediterranean to Europe could reach 400,000 by the end of the year, says the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
The refugee agency predicts that this figure could hit 450,000 or more by 2016, as a growing number of people continue to flee war-torn countries largely in the Middle East and Africa.
With this figure, adding to the 366,000 who have had already arrived in 2015, the UNHCR has called on Europe to offer guaranteed relocation for Syrian refugees.
A record 7,000 Syrian refugees arrived in Macedonia on Monday, while some 30,000 are on Greek islands including Lesbos.
Thousands of refugees are travelling by land through Macedonia, Serbia, Hungary and Austria to reach Western Europe. However, tensions have mounted between authorities and asylum seekers as they become increasingly displaced.
Hungary is the gateway to Europe and refugees at the country’s borders have been met with hostility as the Hungarian government claims to be abiding by EU laws which prevents them from travelling without a valid passport.
But refugees desperate to reach Western Europe continue to try and reach the Hungarian capital of Budapest, where they can access trains to Austria and Germany.
On Tuesday, many of those who have spent days on the Hungarian-Serbian border town of Roszke waiting for buses to take them to a nearby camp, made an attempt to flee.
Hundreds of refugees, many carrying small children and babies, ran across a cornfield by the train tracks at Roszke station fleeing riot police wielding batons and paper spray, in hope of reaching the capital by foot.
Tensions continued to flare at the border town as refugees made a further attempt to break free from a police line. Some claim they are being treated like “animals” as they sleep outdoors at night in cold temperatures.
In Hungary 2,700 new refugees entered the country on Monday, bringing the total for this year close to 180,000 people.
At the same time, thousands of refugees, largely from Syria, continue to arrive in Serbia from Macedonia.
Suleyman Najib Haluani, who fled from Damascus and is now in the Serbian town of Kanjiza said: “I am Christian. There is pressure on us in Syria from a lot of sides. I escaped from Syria because of religion…I want to go to Germany.”
The conflict in Syria has become both political and religious as Shiite and Sunni Muslims flight over territory leaving Syrian Christians as a minority.
Germany is expected to take in 800,000 refugees this year – more than any other European country and pressures have been put on other EU member states to distribute the number of refugees.
UNHCR spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said: “Discussions in Europe this week are taking on even greater urgency because it obviously cannot be a German solution to a European problem.”
Earlier this week David Cameron announced that the UK will take 20,000 refugees over the next five years and on Wednesday the European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker is expected to publish a proposal for distributing 160,000 asylum seekers among EU members.
Figures from the International Organisation for Migration show 380,000 people have also arrived in Europe by sea this year.
The IOM put the total number of refugee deaths for those travelling to by sea at 2,760 – 500 more than this time last year.
Flavio Di Giacomo, spokesman for the IOM said that the numbers is not an “emergency” but the way the refugees are putting their live at risk is a “terrible situation”.
“This is not an emergency in terms of numbers. This is an emergency because of the way people are forced to arrive in Europe, putting their lives in the hands of smugglers and risking their lives at sea, and then walking through the Balkans in this terrible situation.”