From September 2015 through March 2016, a total of nearly 30.000 refugees from Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, and other war-torn countries, who fled to Europe via the Mediterranean Sea and the Balkans, came to Cologne from the german border towns of Passau and Freilassing. They arrived in special trains by Deutsche Bahn at the train station of Cologne/Bonn airport, where they were given medical emergency treatment, food, and warm clothing by volunteers, before they got on busses to official refugee camps all over North Rhine-Westphalia, where they were registered to start the application for granting the right of asylum.