BERLIN, Sept. 17 (Xinhua) -- President of the German Federal Office for Migration and Refugees Manfred Schmidt asked for his resignation on Thursday "due to personal reasons".

His resignation was accepted by Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere, according to a statement by the Interior Ministry on Thursday morning.

The German Federal Office for Migration and Refugees is at the forefront in the view of the current political situation. The dramatic increase in numbers of asylum seekers in Germany presents the office with enormous challenges, said the statement.

According to German media reports, Schmidt's authority has come under ever stronger criticism lately because it had not been able to expand the capacity of the agency quickly. Currently, more than 250,000 applications for asylum pile up there.

On Aug. 31, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that Germany would intensify its efforts to speed up processing procedures of refugee applications and increase the number of places in preliminary reception centers for refugees.

Germany is expecting an uNPRecedented influx of up to 800,000 refugees and asylum seekers this year.