Angela Merkel has defended her decision to open German borders to unregistered refugees, only to introduce controls on Sunday, saying the impulse was right and had shown Germany’s “friendly, beautiful face” to the world.
Speaking in Berlin after a meeting with her Austrian counterpart, Werner Faymann, Merkel said she had faced a humanitarian emergency two weeks ago, as tens of thousands of exhausted refugees waited to enter the country. She had, exceptionally, agreed to let them in, she said.
The German chancellor rejected claims that her decision had made Europe’s refugee crisis worse by encouraging others to head for Germany. She said that images of volunteers greeting refugees at Munich’s main train station had gone round the world. “If we had not shown a friendly face, that’s not my country,” she said. ...
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