- Around 1.1m migrants are estimated to have arrived in Germany in 2015
- State governor has said the Chancellor should drastically limit numbers
- Horst Seehofer claimed maximum amount each year should be 200,000
Angela Merkel’s open-door migration policy was challenged by her own political allies again yesterday as she faced calls for a cap on the numbers entering Germany.
Almost 1.1million migrants are estimated to have arrived last year, mainly through the state of Bavaria which borders Austria and the Czech Republic.
The state governor yesterday said the German Chancellor should drastically limit the ‘excessive’ number of newcomers.
Angela Merkel’s open-door migration policy was challenged by her own political allies again yesterday as she faced calls for a cap on the numbers entering Germany. She is pictured giving her New Year’s Eve message (left) and Horst Seehofer, her ally, is pictured (right)
Horst Seehofer, who leads the Christian Social Union, the Bavarian sister party of Mrs Merkel’s Christian Democrats, said: ‘In Germany, the arrival of 100,000 to a maximum 200,000 asylum seekers and war refugees a year would pose no problem.’
The CSU has already called for Germany to cap the numbers it takes in. Ahead of the party’s annual conference this week, Mr Seehofer said: ‘Limiting the number of migrants must be the main objective in 2016.
‘This figure [200,000] is tolerable and, in that case, integration would also work properly. For me, anything above that is excessive.’
Mr Seehofer warned that there could be up to 1.5million arrivals this year unless measures to check the crisis were taken.
Almost 1.1million migrants are estimated to have arrived last year, mainly through the state of Bavaria which borders Austria and the Czech Republic. Above, a young boy disembarks on a beach after crossing from Turkey to Lesbos
Refugees cover themselves with thermal blankets as they sit on a beach near the town of Mytilene, shortly after crossing a part of the Aegean sea on a dinghy from Turkey to the Greek island of Lesbos on Sunday
Horst Seehofer, who leads the Christian Social Union, the Bavarian sister party of Mrs Merkel’s Christian Democrats, said Germany can only comfortably take 200,000 migrants a year. Above, migrants arrive on Lesbos on Sunday
He also said that other EU members, Arab countries and the US should shoulder more responsibility for refugees. Mr Seehofer added: ‘We have the latter to thank for many of the problems that are causing people to flee.’
Mrs Merkel rejected a cap on refugees in her New Year message, although she has vowed to reduce numbers this year.
Last month, Wolfgang Steiger, the general secretary of her CDU party, said a ceiling for the numbers coming into both Germany and the EU should be set urgently.