Germany open to 500,000 refugees each year as crisis grows on continent

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BERLIN — With Germany promising to make room for up to 500,000 new refugees a year, Chancellor Angela Merkel urged neighbors Tuesday to expand havens for desperate asylum seekers even as Europe remains divided over the spiraling migrant crisis.

Germany’s increasingly open-door policies reflect just one side of the struggle to handle the latest waves of migrants, including many from violence-battered Iraq and Syria. Other nations have moved in the other direction, seeking to block borders or push migrants ahead to the next country.

The escalating humanitarian crisis has sharply tested European cooperation and fundamental policies such as open frontiers and tolerance for the mainly Muslim newcomers.

Speaking in Berlin, Merkel and Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven backed a quota system for asylum seekers to be shared among the 28 nations of the European Union — a plan expected to be further outlined on Wednesday.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/germany-open-to-500000-refugees-each-year-as-crisis-grows-on-continent/2015/09/08/4eb04202-6820-4fbe-a43b-438dee388074_story.html

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1. Absorbtion of Refugees Would Be Vicotry for ISIS, Says French FM

REUTERS - France warned on Tuesday that it would be a mistake for Europe to take in all refugees persecuted by Islamic State militants in Syria and Iraq, and called for a plan of action to ensure the Middle East's diversity remained despite the mounting crisis.

About 60 countries, including ministers from Iraq, Jordan, Turkey and Lebanon, met in Paris on Tuesday to cement measures aimed at easing the return of refugees, encouraging regional governments to bring minorities into the political fold and ensure no impunity for crimes against humanity.

"It's very difficult, but if all these refugees come to Europe or elsewhere, then Daesh has won the game," French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told RTL radio, referring to the Arabic acronym for Islamic State.

"The objective (of this conference) is that the Middle East remains the Middle East, that means a region of diversity where there are Christians, Yazidis, etc," he said.

http://www.haaretz.com/news/world/1.675117