mick silver
31st October 2015, 03:22 PM
BERLIN (Reuters) - Nearly 10,000 refugees continued to arrive in Germany daily, police said on Saturday, highlighting the scale of the challenge facing the country's stretched border staff ahead of a crunch meeting between Angela Merkel and a Bavarian ally on the crisis.
Chancellor Merkel will discuss refugee policy on Saturday evening with Bavarian premier Horst Seehofer, head of the Christian Social Union (CSU) and who has criticized her asylum policy and handling of the crisis.
The CSU, sister party to Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU), has been outspoken about her "open doors" policy towards refugees, in part because its home state of Bavaria is the entry point for virtually all of the migrants arriving in Germany.
Berlin expects between 800,000 and a million refugees and migrants to arrive in Germany this year, twice as many as in any prior year.
The huge numbers have fueled anti-immigration sentiment, with support for Merkel's conservatives dropping to its lowest level in more than three years. There have also been a spate of right-wing attacks on shelters: police in Dresden reported two more arson attacks on Friday night on a hotel and a container, both of which were planned to house refugees and asylum seekers.
ADVERTISEMENT
http://beacon-us-iad2.rubiconproject.com/beacon/d/ca67bf0a-777d-419e-84b4-66ce54bfa3da?accountId=11384&siteId=35590&zoneId=148150&e=6A1E40E384DA563B31A6AB70B0A51B53CF295EEEFBE48445 08E53EA50E0646D559A339AB4F0029575EBC2BA9F74D4C9EF5 589DD20082293CB1C65DF36C6B61D472A659EA77CBF2595927 E195203792BEE44D7B730AD67AB070DEF3121942AD0C6D7AFF D4E317C3AE26D20F2BD87140E3F495B928D5BE3BBF4E5AE281 ECB62E3EB798C798BE00422C
On Sunday, Merkel and Seehofer will hold talks with Sigmar Gabriel, who leads the other party in her "grand coalition", the Social Democrats (SPD).
Conservative officials believe it is likely Seehofer will come away from this weekend's meetings with Merkel with a deal to introduce so-called 'transit zones' at border crossings to process refugees' asylum requests.
SPD politicians have rejected that idea, instead calling for faster registration and processing of asylum applications.
The crisis has also prompted squabbling among EU states over how best to deal with the influx. European leaders last weekend agreed to cooperate to manage migrants crossing the Balkans but offered no quick fix.
German Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen said Europe needed to work together to come up with a solution to the crisis but that Germany would continue to welcome refugees.
"We will not slam the door in the face of the refugees," she said at a security conference in Bahrain.
(Reporting by Victoria Bryan and Holger Hansen; Additional reporting by Yara Bayoumy and William Maclean in Bahrain; Editing by Clelia Oziel)
Chancellor Merkel will discuss refugee policy on Saturday evening with Bavarian premier Horst Seehofer, head of the Christian Social Union (CSU) and who has criticized her asylum policy and handling of the crisis.
The CSU, sister party to Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU), has been outspoken about her "open doors" policy towards refugees, in part because its home state of Bavaria is the entry point for virtually all of the migrants arriving in Germany.
Berlin expects between 800,000 and a million refugees and migrants to arrive in Germany this year, twice as many as in any prior year.
The huge numbers have fueled anti-immigration sentiment, with support for Merkel's conservatives dropping to its lowest level in more than three years. There have also been a spate of right-wing attacks on shelters: police in Dresden reported two more arson attacks on Friday night on a hotel and a container, both of which were planned to house refugees and asylum seekers.
ADVERTISEMENT
http://beacon-us-iad2.rubiconproject.com/beacon/d/ca67bf0a-777d-419e-84b4-66ce54bfa3da?accountId=11384&siteId=35590&zoneId=148150&e=6A1E40E384DA563B31A6AB70B0A51B53CF295EEEFBE48445 08E53EA50E0646D559A339AB4F0029575EBC2BA9F74D4C9EF5 589DD20082293CB1C65DF36C6B61D472A659EA77CBF2595927 E195203792BEE44D7B730AD67AB070DEF3121942AD0C6D7AFF D4E317C3AE26D20F2BD87140E3F495B928D5BE3BBF4E5AE281 ECB62E3EB798C798BE00422C
On Sunday, Merkel and Seehofer will hold talks with Sigmar Gabriel, who leads the other party in her "grand coalition", the Social Democrats (SPD).
Conservative officials believe it is likely Seehofer will come away from this weekend's meetings with Merkel with a deal to introduce so-called 'transit zones' at border crossings to process refugees' asylum requests.
SPD politicians have rejected that idea, instead calling for faster registration and processing of asylum applications.
The crisis has also prompted squabbling among EU states over how best to deal with the influx. European leaders last weekend agreed to cooperate to manage migrants crossing the Balkans but offered no quick fix.
German Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen said Europe needed to work together to come up with a solution to the crisis but that Germany would continue to welcome refugees.
"We will not slam the door in the face of the refugees," she said at a security conference in Bahrain.
(Reporting by Victoria Bryan and Holger Hansen; Additional reporting by Yara Bayoumy and William Maclean in Bahrain; Editing by Clelia Oziel)