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An irate politician in the German state of Bavaria has sent a bus packed with 31 Syrian refugees to Chancellor Angela Merkel’s office in protest against her liberal immigration policy.
Peter Dreier, head of the south-eastern town of Landshut, said his rural area was buckling under the strain of a mass influx that brought 1.1 million migrants to Germany last year.
Local citizens had told him “it’s time we set a limit,” Mr Dreier said.
“We are trying to help these people integrate. But that won’t work if this year we face another wave of one million, or even more.”
Calling the trip “an act of desperation,” he said he had warned Ms Merkel about his plans in a phone call last October, and had announced it to her office on Wednesday.
The Syrians, escorted by police, arrived after a seven-hour journey to Ms Merkel’s office where they were greeted by a large throng of media but no representatives of her Government.
A dozen protesters gathered at the Chancellery building in Berlin, waving a German national flag and chanting “Merkel must go”.
In a statement, Ms Merkel’s spokesman Steffen Seibert said that housing refugees was the task of state and local governments, who received federal support for this.
“The Government is aware that the current number of refugees is posing significant challenges throughout Germany and especially in Bavaria,” Mr Seibert said, adding that additional financial support was being provided to communities this year.
Refugee advocates condemn ‘publicity stunt’
Mr Dreier, who had travelled to Berlin separately by car, said he was disappointed by Ms Merkel’s refusal to engage, calling it “an attempt to ignore and negate” the problem.
German newspaper Die Welt reported that he eventually decided to pay for the refugees’ immediate accommodation at a hotel out of his own pocket.
Pro-refugee activists condemned the trip as a publicity stunt that exploited the refugees.
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In a special report, ABC correspondents Mary Gearin, Barbara Miller and Sophie McNeill follow some asylum seekers on their long path through Europe.
“This doesn’t solve the problems,” said Guenther Burkhardt, head of German refugee support group Pro Asyl.
“This is a stunt that misuses the plight of refugees to send the message ‘We want to close the borders’.”
Mr Dreier represents the Freie Waehler, a loose grouping of politicians who do not have a common policy, but campaign on individual issues.
The Chancellor is under increasing pressure to stem the flow of migrants coming to Germany as several thousand continue to stream in every day and there has been a backlash by right-wing groups.
Mass sexual assaults on women in Cologne at New Year by gangs of young men described by police as being of Arab or North African in appearance, have deepened worries.
The frustration in Bavaria, the main entry point for most migrants, is especially strong with Ms Merkel’s conservative allies, the Christian Social Union (CSU), repeatedly calling on her to introduce a formal cap on migrant numbers.
Ms Merkel has resisted such a cap, arguing it would be impossible to enforce.
AFP/Reuters
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refugees,
immigration,
community-and-society,
government-and-politics,
germany,
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