German President: Our capacity for taking in refugees is finite

In a speech last night, German President Joachim Gauck described the continuing influx of refugees into Germany as “an epochal event whose scale and consequences are still difficult for us to determine.”  He added that “We want to help. Our hearts are open. However our means are finite.” Meanwhile, Die Welt reports that the German police are considering segregating refugees according to their religion following a number of outbreaks of violence in refugee centres across the country. Jörg Radek, the deputy head of the GdP, the German police union, is quoted as saying that in responding to the violence, “The police have reached their absolute limit.”

Meanwhile, in an interview with the Sunday Telegraph, Zoltán Kovács, a spokesperson for the Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, justified Hungary’s opposition to taking in refugees, arguing that “multi-culturalism in Western Europe has not been a success in our view. We want to avoid making the same mistakes ourselves.” The European Commission has also warned Hungary that building a fence on its frontier with Slovenia to keep out migrants would violate the rules of the EU’s Schengen border-free zone.

Separately, The Sunday Times reported that the EU is considering offering Turkey significant additional funding as well as visa-free travel for its citizens to the Schengen-zone in exchange for the Turkish government taking significant steps to stop the flow of refugees to Europe. Turkey is also reported to have asked for a no-fly zone and a 50 mile buffer to be set up between Syria and Turkey. The plan is reported to have the backing of the UK and Germany.