Germany ‘can take 500,000 asylum seekers a year’

Germany can cope with at least 500,000 asylum seekers a year for several years, Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel has said. Germany expects more than 800,000 asylum-seekers in 2015 alone – four times the 2014 figure. Mr Gabriel reiterated that other EU states should share the burden. The UN’s refugee agency, UNHCR, says a record 7,000 […]

Germany can cope with at least 500,000 asylum seekers a year for several years, Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel has said.
Germany expects more than 800,000 asylum-seekers in 2015 alone – four times the 2014 figure.
Mr Gabriel reiterated that other EU states should share the burden.
The UN’s refugee agency, UNHCR, says a record 7,000 Syrian refugees arrived in Macedonia alone on Monday and 30,000 migrants were on Greek islands.
The migrant influx has unsettled European governments and prompted diverse responses. Hungary’s conservative leadership is building a border fence to try to keep them out, but German politicians have expressed pride in crowds who turned out to welcome new arrivals.
A Greek minister said on Monday that the island of Lesbos, which sits off the Turkish coast, was “on the verge of an explosion” due to a build-up of 20,000 migrants.
The government and UNHCR have brought in extra staff and ships to process the migrants.
Germany expects some 800,000 migrants this year, but Mr Gabriel said it was prepared for more in the longer term.
He said that Germany could take a disproportionate share, but that other members of the EU must also play their part.
The UNHCR highlighted the growing scale of the migrant issue, releasing new figures that suggests it expected 400,000 migrants to arrive in Europe by sea in 2015.