“It must be clear that we don’t give a single millimetre to these far-right mobs”, he said.
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“Everyone facing political persecution or fleeing civil war has the right to be treated fairly when seeking asylum,” Merkel said, as she interacted with some of the 600 refugees in the shelter.
They also honked their horns as they passed by the German chancellor from across a road.
Merkel planned to meet with refugees, aid workers and local officials at the site south of Dresden.
Chancellor Merkel vowed that Germany would have “no tolerance” for “shameful and vile” attacks on asylum-seekers, after a wave of violent protests. “There will be no tolerance toward those who aren’t prepared to help where help is needed”, she said, urging Germans to speak out against anti-foreigner sentiment in conversations with their families, friends and church groups.
Violent protests by far-right extremists and neo-Nazis erupted over the weekend at a refugee shelter in Heidenau.
Germany is expecting to receive a record number of 800,000 asylum-seekers this year, four times higher than the number in 2014.
Opposition to mass immigration has increasingly escalated into episodes of violence in recent months with more than 200 attacks on refugee centres reported since January.
While most Germans have welcomed the refugees, a vocal minority is opposed to them, particularly in eastern Germany, which still lags behind the west in terms of jobs and opportunities 25 years after reunification.
Violence directed at refugee homes has continued since the weekend with a new asylum centre in the nearby city of Leipzig set ablaze early on Wednesday.
Police arrested two intruders with knives entering a refugee home in Parchim in east Germany late Tuesday.
Meanwhile, a Swedish rescue crew cut up the deck of a migrant boat north of Libya yesterday to make a grisly discovery in the hull: The corpses of 51 migrants who died making the unsafe Mediterranean crossing in hopes of reaching Europe.
The chancellor also said that the German government was planning legislative amendments in order to better deal with the refugee issue.
On a separate visit to an asylum centre in Berlin, President Joachim Gauck paid tribute to volunteers who had shown a “bright Germany full of light”, rather than the “dark Germany” that arose from attacks on asylum seekers.
Opinion polls show that a majority of Germans believe the nation can cope with the influx of asylum seekers.
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“Given what we have all been forced to see here, I would like to recall that the humane and dignified treatment of every individual who comes to us is part of Germany’s national identity”, Merkel said after visiting the Heidenau center.
