The head of Germany’s Office for Migration and Refugees said that up to 300,000 more refugees could arrive in Germany this year.
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Weighing in on one of Europe’s most burning issues of today – the refugee crisis that has been plaguing Europe for a second year – she once again voiced support for a controversial migrant redistribution system that imposes mandatory quotas on each European Union member state, stressing that “every member must do their share” to deal with the deluge of predominantly Muslim refugees.
The comments come hours after German Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel said that Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives had “underestimated” the challenge of integrating a record number of migrants.
Islamophobia underpins the refusal in many cases, as the majority of refugees come from Muslim-majority nations like Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq.
She told German public broadcaster ARD that “everybody has to do their bit” and didn’t rule out the possibility of letting some countries take in fewer migrants if they contribute more financially instead. “We’re going to have to keep discussing that”.
Officials have spoken of more than million arrivals in 2015 but Germany’s top migration official said, actual figure was expected lesser once duplicate registrations and people who migrate to other countries are excluded. “I’d be happy for us to take a look at that time”, she said. The arrival encouraged countries such as Hungary to sharply disparage Merkel, and even accuse her of hostile Europe’s stability. A nationalist party to the right of Merkel’s Christian Democrats has received a surge in support and the chancellor, who has stuck by her motto “We will manage, ” has seen her popularity ratings fall.
Merkel faces regional elections this weekend and a general election next year, with a new poll indicating that half of Germans do not want her to seek a fourth term.
Most refugees there don’t get government support, but the agreement with the European Union calls for the bloc to provide up to $6.8 billion to help Syrian refugees in Turkey.
In an interview yesterday, Mrs Merkel declined to be drawn on whether she would run again, or even when she might announce her intention to stand again.
BAMF chief Frank-Juergen Weise told the Bild am Sonntag newspaper that Germany’s healthy economy and improvements to refugee services over the a year ago meant that the country was well-placed to absorb new arrivals, particularly as their numbers have dropped off.
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Frank-Juergen Weise said some people had been registered twice, and others had moved on to other destinations.
