BERLIN (AP) — Germany's Interior Ministry says that about 280,000 new asylum-seekers arrived in the country last year — far below the influx of 890,000 in 2015.

Arrivals declined sharply with the closure of the Balkan migrant route in March and the subsequent agreement between the European Union and Turkey to stem the flow across the Aegean Sea to Turkey.

Asylum applications have lagged well behind arrivals and many people who came to Germany in 2015 applied only last year.

The figures released Wednesday showed that 745,545 formal asylum applications were made last year — 268,869 more than in 2015.