Chancellor Angela Merkel came under renewed pressure from her own conservatives on Friday to stem the flow of refugees into Germany as she heads to a weekend summit of European Union leaders and Turkey’s prime minister.
Roughly a million refugees and migrants fleeing war and deprivation in the Middle East, Africa and Asia are expected to arrive in Germany this year alone – the majority of those reaching Europe – and local authorities are struggling to cope.
Merkel has faced intense pressure from her own conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) and their Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU), to change course on her open-door refugee policy. They gave her a final reminder on Friday.
“Immigration is to be limited to a dimension that does not exceed society’s acceptance and which also guarantees the country’s long-term integration capacity,” conservative interior policy officials from both the federal and state level said in a statement after meeting in Berlin.
Germany cannot take in all refugees and displaced people, they added
Source : Reuters
