German chancellor Angela Merkel has released a statement late last week regarding the country's plans of deporting hundreds of thousands of refugees and migrants that arrived in Germany for the past year. The German leader has been criticized worldwide for her decision to open the country's borders to refugees. Now she seems to be retracting her move, pushing for repatriation.
The increasing conflicts in some parts of the Middle East have forced millions to flee to neighboring lands in search for peace and safety. Known as the Migration Crisis of 2016, thousands upon thousands of immigrants take their fate into boats that would carry them across the sea in hopes that European nations will accept their plea for help. Refugees from Syria and Iraq have been arriving on the shores of Italy, Germany, Greece, Sweden, and Hungary since 2014 in insurmountable numbers.
According to a report from Foreign Policy, around 49 percent of residents in Europe believe that accepting refugees at high numbers will be a major threat to European countries. A majority of citizens also believe that the presence of refugees will increase the possibilities of terrorism in their countries. This has created a dangerous divide in Europe, a problem which could be fatal to the economies of the members of the European Union.
As reported in Express UK, more than a hundred thousand refugees have been denied entry to Germany this year alone. Merkel has been quite frank about the realities that some refugees truly need support and asylum, yet there are also others who are trying to abuse the system. She has strongly insisted that only those that truly need refuge will be accepted and allowed to stay within the protection of the German government.