Berlin, October 7 (RHC)-- Germany’s Interior Ministry says it has registered about 577,000 asylum seekers between January and September, with a third of them believed to be from Syria.  In a statement released on Wednesday, the German ministry said the sum was registered on Germany’s EASY system. The registration takes place before the full asylum application procedure is completed.

The ministry, however, said the figure could be subject to errors, as some refugees may have provided incorrect information while others would not follow through with their applications.  The number was reportedly more than twice the total arrivals of 200,000 recorded in 2014.

In September alone, Germany registered 163,772 asylum seekers, including 85,455 refugees from Syria.  Germany is expecting to receive between 800,000 and one million asylum seekers this year.

In another development on Wednesday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel criticized as outdated the Dublin Regulation, which requires asylum seekers to be processed in the first European Union member state they reach.

“Let's be frank. The Dublin process, in its current form, is obsolete,” Merkel said in a joint speech with French President Francois Hollande to the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France.

She called for the establishment of a “new procedure” to redistribute the refugees “fairly” across the EU.

Germany is Europe's top destination for refugees, who are reportedly fleeing conflict-hit zones in Africa and the Middle East.

Europe is now divided over how to deal with an unprecedented refugee crisis, in which people risk their lives by taking boats and undertaking the dangerous journey across the Mediterranean Sea to reach Europe.