51% of Germans believe Germany accepts too many refugees: Poll

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
5 Feb 20:58

A new survey finds that more than half of Germans think their country has taken in too many refugees.

Ukrainian refugees queue for food in Berlin, March 8, 2022. (AP)

More than half of Germans believe that their country has accepted too many refugees, a survey conducted by the Institute for New Social Answers (INSA) for the Bild am Sonntag newspaper found on Sunday.

According to the poll, 51% of respondents think Germany has taken too many refugees, with another 33% saying the number of refugees is adequate.

The survey, taken by 1,003 people, also showed that some 11% of people believe that Germany has to accept even more people seeking refuge.

In 2022, Germany received the largest number of applications for asylum since 2016, with around 244,000 people applying for asylum protection in the country, 28% more that the previous year, according to the German Federal Office for Migration and Refugees.

The office also registered around 1.04 million Ukrainians, who fled to Germany last year amid the Ukraine war.

In mid-January, the International Center for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD) published its Migration Outlook 2023 report which forecasts that the EU could receive up to four million Ukrainian refugees in the upcoming year.

According to the report, approximately 4.9 million Ukrainians are already registered under the EU's Temporary Protection scheme alongside protection schemes in other European countries as a result of the ongoing war in Ukraine.

The report noted that the "ICMPD estimates that sudden inflows could reach up to four million people, severely straining Europe’s capacity to process and integrate new arrivals."