Refugee crisis requires EU-wide approach: Merkel
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has called for a pan-European approach to address the current refugee crisis in the continent, demanding a fair way of distributing asylum seekers between EU member states.
"In Germany, we must do what we can, no question about it. But we must not think small on this issue. Otherwise, Europe will once again be in great danger… we need a European-wide approach,” Merkel said in a speech at a reception of the Federation of German Industries (BDI) in the capital city of Berlin on Tuesday.
She also noted that no country could take in all asylum seekers, stressing the need for a “fair distribution of refugees across Europe."
The German chancellor further emphasized that “new answers” to the ongoing refugee crisis in Europe means that “we must do everything we can, with the help of our neighbors, to protect outside borders.”
Elsewhere, in an address to members of her conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party in the city of Darmstadt late on Monday, Merkel warned that fighting could erupt in the Balkans along the main route of refugees if Germany closed its border with Austria.
The German leader is under pressure at home to curb the influx of refugees to the Western European state.
This is while Germany, Europe’s top destination for refugees, is expecting to receive between 800,000 and one million asylum seekers this year.
Officials in the European countries reportedly remain divided over how to deal with refugees, most of whom are fleeing conflict-hit zones in the Middle East and Africa.
While some European leaders support an open-door refugee policy, others prefer controlling the EU's external borders, deporting more people and paying third countries to keep asylum seekers on their soil.
According to the latest figures released by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), 757,192 refugees have reached Europe’s shores so far this year while a total of 3,406 people have either died or gone missing in their perilous journey to the continent.
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