Despite fewer headlines and less attention on the refugee crisis in 2016, Europe was still struggling to accommodate and care for more than one million asylum seekers across the year.

As conflicts in the Middle East and Africa raged on, hundreds of thousands of people fled their homes to seek safety and shelter in Europe - many taking dangerous routes across the Mediterranean to do so.

While the total number of asylum applicants in Europe was down seven per cent compared to 2015, some 1.3m people still sought asylum in EU+ countries - which includes countries outside the EU such as Iceland.

Such a number is unprecedented compared to just a few years ago.