The Story

Seven years after the good news story of the decade, when Germany opened its borders to over a million Syrian refugees, people from the Middle East are once again making their way to Germany in larger numbers.

So far this year, some 140,000 asylum applications have been made - mainly by people from Syria and Iraq - an increase of 35 percent on last year.

Whereas in 2015 the border from Austria to Bavaria was the main access point , these days most of people are crossing from the Czech Republic into Saxony.

These refugees come in addition to an estimated one million Ukrainians who’ve come to Germany and who don’t need to apply for asylum.

In contrast to the Wilkommenskultur of 2015, this time around the government is facing pressure to prevent the refugees from reaching Germany.

In late September, the association of local governments wrote an open letter to Olaf Scholz saying that they had hit the limit of their capacity and demanded that he take acti…