Thread: Germany expecting 300,000 new migrants in 2016

Germany expecting 300,000 new migrants in 2016

By Yvette C. Hammett | Aug. 28, 2016 at 12:48 PM

Refugees and migrants try to jam on buses near the border crossing with Serbia In Roszke, Hungary
on September 8, 2015 as they seek asylum in Germany. That country expects about 300,000
new migrants this year on top of the 1 million it has already allowed in to Germany.
File Photo by Achilleas Zavallis/UPI | License Photo

BERLIN, Aug. 28 (UPI) -- Germany expects to receive as many as 300,000 migrants in 2016 in addition to the 1 million who arrived last year from the Middle East and Africa.

While the latest influx is expected to stress the country's Federal Office for Migration and Refugees, its director said he feels confident the numbers won't rise above the estimate, BBC reported.

Frank-Juergen Weise said more than 390,000 people have applied for asylum in the first six months of 2016.

Weise's pronouncent came hours after German Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel said Chancellor Angela Merkel's party had underestimated the challenge Germany faces as more migrate to that country, Sunday Express reported.

Gabriel, a leader of the Social Democrats, a coalition partner to Merkel's government, made his comments just as Germany prepares for a federal election next year.

"I, we always said that it's inconceivable for Germany to take in a million people every year," Gabriel said. He is critical of Merkel's oft-used phrase "We Can Do It," which she adopted after last summer's refugee influx.

There is growing concern about how to integrate that many new people in to German society and in to the labor force.

Weise said he is aware that integration will take a long time and cost a lot of money.

Germany remains on high alert after a series of attacks in July that left four passengers injured when a teen attacked them with an ax on a train. The 17-year-old with the ax was killed by police.

Germany expecting 300,000 new migrants in 2016 - UPI.com

Poll: 50% of Germans Oppose Fourth Term for Merkel Over Open-Door Migrant Policy

EUROPE 00:27 29.08.2016(updated 01:39 29.08.2016)

Angela Merkel’s political fortunes continue to falter as several hundred thousand new migrants flood into Germany amid an outbreak of terror attacks.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s support among German voters continues to crater with a new poll showing that 50% of Germans oppose granting the politician a fourth term in office calling into question whether the country’s leader will even both pursuing reelection. , Support for Merkel has fallen precipitously over the last year as the public has become enraged by Merekel’s open-door migrant policy that saw Germany accept 2.14 million refugees in 2015 alone according to the Federal Statistics Office.

Many Germans believe these migrants escaping the horrors of the Syrian and other Middle East battlefields have failed to assimilate to the domestic culture.

Opposition to what some called the growing Islamization of Germany exploded in the past month following a string of violent attacks against civilians, three of which were carried out by asylum seekers with Daesh (ISIS) claiming responsibility for two of these terror strikes.

The Emnid poll conducted on behalf of the Bild am Sonntag newspaper found that 50% were against Merkel remaining in office beyond the 2017 election with 42 percent wanting her to remain.

The poll consisted of 501 respondents. Bld am Sonntag commissioned a poll on Merkel’s electability finding that 45% favored Merkel serving a fourth term with 48% opposed – with the recent polls results marking a significant, but not insurmountable, five point electoral swing.

Asked in an interview on Sunday with German public broadcaster ARD whether she sought a fourth term as the country’s leader, Merkel refused to comment saying that she would decide "in due course."

The politician’s popularity will likely falter more in the coming months with plans laid out to draw from German citizens’ public pensions in order to provide necessary aid and relief to the millions of refugee that have flocked to the country and with growing budgetary pressures likely undercutting Merkel’s promise to increase funding for infrastructure, education and research.

Merkel’s future candidacy may ultimately rest in the hands of the Erdogan government in Turkey that has grown increasingly dismayed by the European Union’s reticence to offer Turkish citizens visa-free travel within the Schengen Zone in completion of the controversial Turkey-EU migrant deal.

European officials contest that Erdogan has failed to meet certain human rights targets established in the deal due in large part to the purge of over 100,000 civil servants and arrest of over 15,000 people in the wake of the failed coup of July 15.

Turkey has threatened to inundate Europe with millions of migrants with Erdogan speaking directly to the possibility of opening the floodgates if visa-free travel is not granted by October.

The addition of millions of new refugees racing through Europe towards Germany could ultimately doom Merkel’s electoral viability.

Poll: 50% of Germans Oppose Fourth Term for Merkel Over Open-Door Migrant Policy

EU nations must not to refuse Muslim migrants: Merkel

By AFP
Published: August 28, 2016

German public sentiment is sharply divided when it comes to Merkel, who has not yet said whether
she will stand for a fourth term in a general election expected in September or October next year. PHOTO: AFP

BERLIN: The refusal of some EU countries to accept Muslim refugees is “unacceptable”, Chancellor Angela Merkel said Sunday as Germany called for quotas to divide the influx throughout the bloc.

“That’s not right at all that some countries say: ‘generally speaking, we don’t want to have Muslims in our countries’,” Merkel told German public television channel ARD.

Backing the idea of a quota system for taking in migrants, the German leader stressed that “everyone must do their part,” and that “a common solution must be found.”

A common European migration policy is a highly controversial issue, which will be on the agenda of an EU summit next month, with eastern members the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia refusing to take in refugees under an EU-wide quota system championed by Berlin.

Slovak President Robert Fico has vowed he would “never bring even a single Muslim” into his country.

In 2015, Germany took in around a million asylum seekers, most from Syria, Iraq or Afghanistan, and this year it expects up to 300,000 more to arrive, the Federal Office for Migrants and Refugees (BAMF) said Sunday.

“We can ensure optimal services for up to 300,000. Should more people arrive, it would put us under pressure, then we would go into so-called crisis mode. But even then we would not have conditions like last year,” BAMF chief Frank-Juergen Weise told the Bild am Sonntag newspaper.

Merkel’s decision last September to open the doors to asylum seekers was seen in many European nations, notably those in the east, as an invitation for further mass migration.

Some, like the Slovak leader, voiced fears of the emergence of a significant Muslim community in their countries.

On Tuesday, Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka said he does not want a “large Muslim community… given the problems we are seeing” and that each EU member should be able to choose how many migrants to accept.

German public sentiment is sharply divided when it comes to Merkel, who has not yet said whether she will stand for a fourth term in a general election expected in September or October next year.

EU nations must not to refuse Muslim migrants: Merkel

I just don't understand how Europe can keep absorbing so many from such a different culture. Just doesn't seem like this will end well. Hope I'm wrong.