Germany is going to accept refugees under an EU program to resettle people that are considered particularly vulnerable while the controls on the German-Austrian border are likely to be prolonged for another half a year.EU Commissioner for Refugees Dimitris Avramopoulos confirmed that the country would be taking in more than 10,000 refugees from North Africa and the Middle East. He added that the German government had committed itself to being a key player in the EU’s latest resettlement program. “The German government is once again there when it comes to international solidarity,” Mr. Avramopoulos said.
The EU program focused on vulnerable people provides a legal, direct, and safe route to Europe for refugees in need of protection. At least 50,000 of the most vulnerable refugees from crisis areas are to be accepted by the EU by 2019. Other member states have already made a commitment to resettle 40,000 refugees, meaning that the program’s objective has been achieved. The EU Commission announced in September last year that it would pay member states to accept 50,000 refugees from Chad, Egypt, Ethiopia, Libya, and Sudan in an attempt to stabilize the flow of migration from across the Mediterranean.
Since the peak of the migrant crisis in Europe in 2015, Germany has had more than 1 million people apply for asylum in the country. The 2016 data by the German Federal Office for Migration and Refugees show that the largest number of migrants originates from Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq and Eritrea.
