Germany’s announcement on Sunday that it was instituting emergency border protections marks a sudden shift in its response to the refugee crisis.
Chancellor Angela Merkel was hailed as a saviour after her government said last month it expected to take in 800,000 refugees and asylum seekers this year alone.
Germany also became the EU first country to suspend the so-called Dublin protocol, which mandates that refugees seek asylum in the first European country they enter, by declaring last month that all Syrian refugees could remain in Germany regardless of the country through which they entered.
That decision was taken in light of the harsh treatment of asylum seekers in Hungary, which plans to complete a four-metre-high fence along its border with Serbia this week. » | David Lawler | Sunday, September 13, 2015
