We can’t take more refugees, say majority of Germans

Rise in number who feel that limit has been reached blamed on Angela Merkel’s open-door policy

MOST Germans have said for the first time that the country cannot take in any more refugees.

A survey by the Bertelsmann Foundation found that the majority of Germans still say immigrants and refugees are “very welcome, or quite welcome”.

But the number of people who felt Germany had reached the point where it could no longer afford an unconditional welcome had risen to 54 per cent, up from just 40 per cent in 2015.

“Many feel that the maximum limit has been reached,” said the report. “The readiness to take in more refugees has significantly fallen.”

Angela Merkel, the German chancel- lor, has faced strong criticism for her “open door refugee policy”, which caused up to a million refugees and migrants to enter Germany in 2015.

The following year a number of domestic terror attacks were carried out in Germany by Afghan and Syrian refugees.

In July 2016, an Afghan injured five people in an axe attack on a train, while a Syrian killed himself and injured 15 others in a suicide bombing.

The most serious incident, on Dec 19, saw a failed asylum seeker from Tuni- sia plough a truck into a Christmas market stand in Berlin, leaving 12 dead.

Anis Amri, 24, entered Germany in July 2016, after the EU-Turkey deal and the closure of the Balkans route significantly slowed the rate of migrants and refugees entering Europe.

The study was released shortly after Mrs Merkel told a Syrian journalist that refugees must respect tolerance, openness and freedom of religion.

“We expect the people who come to us to stick to our law,” she said.

The Bertelsmann Foundation’s study also showed a clear divide in opinion between east and west Germany in attitudes towards refugees.

Around 65 per cent of Germans in the west said they would welcome refugees “with open arms”, compared to just 33 per cent in the east.

It came as the German government yesterday announced steps to choke off state campaign finance for the far-Right National Democratic Party (NPD), after a failed court bid to outlaw the xenophobic fringe group.

The initiative aimed to deprive the NPD of Germany of taxpayers’ money, to which German political parties are generally entitled, before September elections.

Handing government funds to the NPD amounted to “a direct state subsidy for far-Right hate speech”, said Heiko Maas, the justice minister.

Germany’s highest court had in January rejected a bid by the parliament’s upper house to ban the NPD, ruling that although it held a similar ideology to the Nazis, it was too small to endanger German democracy.