Angela
Merkel wants to 'drastically reduce' refugee arrivals in Germany
The
German chancellor Angela Merkel has signalled a compromise on
immigration to critics of her open-door policy from within her
conservative party
Reuters
Monday 14 December
2015 01.11 GMT
Chancellor Angela
Merkel wants to “drastically decrease” the number of refugees
coming to Germany, signalling a compromise to critics of her
open-door policy from within her conservatives on the eve of a party
congress.
Merkel has resisted
pressure from allies within her Christian Democratic Union (CDU) to
put a cap on the number of refugees entering Germany, which is
expected to be more than 340,000 this year.
“At the same time
we took on board the concerns of the people, who are worried about
the future, and this means we want to reduce, we want to drastically
decrease the number of people coming to us,” Merkel told
broadcaster ARD on Sunday.
Merkel, whose
popularity has fallen over her handling of the refugee crisis, said
the word “limit” did not feature in the CDU’s main resolution
which will be debated at the two-day party congress starting on
Monday in the southern city of Karlsruhe.
The chancellor added
there was broad support in the CDU for her strategy to reduce the
numbers.
This included
working with Turkey to fight traffickers, improving the situation at
Syrian refugee camps in Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan, and strengthening
control of the European Union’s outer borders.
Merkel’s
conservative critics want her to get the number of arrivals down
before three state elections in March and say her hopes of running
for a fourth term in 2017 would be in danger.
Her strategy also
includes finding a solution to the migration crisis on the EU level,
where she is meeting resistance from member states opposed to a quota
system to distribute refugees.
Her critics say her
decision in late August to allow Syrian asylum seekers to remain in
Germany regardless which EU country they had first entered had
accelerated the influx of migrants.
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