Merkel, in German town of Heidenau, says no tolerance for xenophobia

German Chancellor Angela Merkel was heckled on Wednesday while visiting a refugee centre, which has been the target of violence by neo-Nazi groups, in the eastern village of Heidenau, media reported.

“There is no tolerance against those who question the dignity of other people”, Merkel told journalists, after her visit to the refugee shelter in Heidenau which houses around 600 asylum seekers.

The blaze followed protests against asylum seekers by far-right demonstrators in the area. Some protesters shouted “Lying press!” while at least one woman held a placard denouncing the chancellor as a “race traitor” – a phrase used by the Nazis to refer to people who dealt with or had relationships with Jews.

In fact, over 150 shelters housing arrivals have been attacked. Officials say there were some 202 such attacks in the first six months of 2015, as many as during the previous year.

Police arrested two men who had charged into a shelter wielding knives in the eastern town of Parchim.

Germany, the most important recipient of migrants in Europe, and its European Union companions are groping for solutions to the continent’s worst refugee disaster since World Conflict Two.

German’s PEGIDA movement is opposed to more refugees entering the country. It’s expected to reach 800,000 this year. While their numbers have declined again, experts have warned that far-right extremists including members of the National Democratic Party, or NPD, are using the refugee issue to stir up fear and resentment among locals. But hours later some of the protesters began attacking police who seemed unprepared for the violence.

Merkel was in Heidenau to meet with aid workers and refugees as a show of solidarity after violent anti-immigration riots took place there at the weekend.

“The more people that make that clear, the stronger we will be”.

Merkel and Gabriel’s trips to Heidenau form part of a series of visits this week to refugee homes by German political leaders.

But Hollande and Merkel reiterated their calls on Monday for Brussels to draw up a list of safe countries of origin.

“We have radical right-wing politicians and criminals who are trying to take advantage of the situation”, she explains. “We shall succeed only if we break new ground together”.

Germany has welcomed all Syrian asylum seekers to remain in the country in a monumental step to try to resolve the refugee crisis in Europe, dismissing a 1990 protocol that stipulates refugees must seek asylum in the first country in which they set foot.

Budapest said it would send in police reinforcements to stem a record influx of asylum-seekers, as more than 2,500 people crossed into the EU country from its southern frontier with Serbia, days before a vast razor-wire barrier aimed at keeping out migrants is completed.