German politician sends bus with refugees to Merkel

But it quickly dawned on the refugees that things might be more complicated, with one telling N24: “We are a (political) football between Berlin and Bavaria and are being used to change the migrant situation, right?”

The bus arrived shortly after 6 p.m.in front of Merkel’s chancellery in the center of Berlin.

Commenting on the cap on the number of refugees demanded by Bavarian Prime Minister Horst Seehofer, the minister said that the country “needs a reduction because, “if [Germany] receives another million [of refugees] like previous year, it will not be able to successfully integrate them”. We just can’t provide proper accommodation for so many people fast enough, which is why we have to make a statement”.

Pro-refugee activists condemned the trip as a publicity stunt that exploited the refugees.

“If a continent like Europe with 500 million people is not capable of taking in one million Syrians, perhaps temporarily, then that is not in line with our values”, Ms Merkel said in a speech in the southern German city of Freiburg. Berlin city representatives instead went on board and offered the group of men emergency accommodation for a night.

Mr Dreier, who had travelled to Berlin separately by vehicle, said he was disappointed by Ms Merkel’s refusal to engage, calling it “an attempt to ignore and negate” the problem.

Landshut district councilor Peter Dreier said Thursday he wants to send a sign refugee policy can not continue like this.

After two hours, Dreier said he had agreed to personally pay for the refugees first night in a Berlin hotel, stressing that the bus had also been laid on by “a private person”, not with taxpayers money. Meanwhile, the United Nations’ refugee agency will seek additional resources for Turkey, the world’s largest host of refugees, and push for more resettlement, its head said on Saturday, as the civil war in Syria is set to enter its sixth year.

Dreier said “there is no end in sight to the wave of refugees, and our country s ability to house them in a dignified way is deteriorating rapidly”.

A Landshut spokesman told The Associated Press all 31 refugees on the bus have been granted asylum in Germany and volunteered to participate in the bus trip.

Both German news channel n-tv and Zeit newspaper’s online edition reported their reporters had talked to refugees during the ride to Berlin and that the migrants didn’t know the trip had been organized as an act to criticize Merkel’s refugee policy. “And I don t see new apartments being built for the immigrants”.