Refugee crisis: Germany imposes restrictions on Syrian refugees in surprise U-turn

[Boiler 46,337]

Berlin has announced hundreds of thousands of Syrians entering Germany will not be granted asylum or refugee status in a surprise U-turn from Angela Merkel's "open-door policy" on refugees.

While Syrian refugees will still be able to enter Germany, they will only be able to stay for one year with "subsidiary protection", which limits their rights as refugees.

The policy shift followed an emergency meeting of Ms Merkel's cabinet and coalition partners on Thursday.

Although the meeting decided against setting up "transit zones" to process refugees on Germany's borders with Austria, they agreed on prompt deportation of people whose asylum claims had failed.

Germany's interior minister, Thomas de Maizière, announced that Berlin would start to fall in line with other governments in the European Union, The Guardian reports.

Syrian refugees beaten with baseball bats by masked gang in Germany
“In this situation other countries are only guaranteeing a limited stay,” he said.

“We’ll now do the same with Syrians in the future. We’re telling them ‘you will get protection, but only so-called subsidiary protection that is limited to a period and without any family unification.'"

An interior ministry spokesperson told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung: "The Federal Office for Migration and Refugees is instructed henceforth to grant Syrian civil war refugees only subsidiary protection."

Germany, along with Sweden and Austria, have so far been the most open countries in response to the growing refugee crisis.

[VOL 425]

But once you let them in they will have a hard time getting them out.

[lostinblue 1,989]

But once you let them in they will have a hard time getting them out.

Another operation wetback ? That would work .

[Boiler 46,337]

Germans are better at this sort of thing, they have previous.

[lostinblue 1,989]

The biggest question is at what point do you stop the invaders before they take over a country. Borders ... language ..culture ... That is what makes up a country . A million , ,2 million , 20 million invaders . Made mostly of men in their 20's . No jobs and no prospect for jobs . At least that pay anything. They are closing 4 and 5 star hotels letting the staff go and are putting 4-5 invaders to a room .. Good for the owners of the hotel but what about the 100 or so staff laid off . .. Crime rate going through the roof . Woman afraid to walk the streets at night .. in fear . Where a year ago not a thought about walking 5 blocks unescorted at midnight. . At some point the people will say enough .

[oceanborn 33]

This certainly isn't a surprise; I was waiting for the u-turn. Still, it makes you wonder about the future of the entirety of this crisis. Europe is hardly united.