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Germany: 'No Limit' To Refugees We'll Take In

Chancellor Angela Merkel has said there is no legal limit to the number of asylum seekers Germany will take in, with at least 800,000 expected this year alone.

Mrs Merkel was speaking as thousands of exhausted refugees were bussed from Hungary into Austria, with most thought to be en route to Germany.

German police said at least 2,000 people had arrived at Munich railway station so far, with up to 7,000 expected by nightfall.

The German Chancellor told the Funke consortium of newspapers: "The right to political asylum has no limits on the number of asylum seekers."

"As a strong, economically healthy country we have the strength to do what is necessary" and ensure every asylum seeker gets a fair hearing", she said.

Many of those making the perilous journey to Germany are fleeing war and persecution in Syria, Iraq and Eritrea.

Germany is the EU's biggest recipient of refugees and economic migrants from southeastern Europe and has won praise around the world for its handling of the escalating crisis.

Germany saw a record 104,460 asylum seekers enter the country in August alone, with the total figure for the year expected to be four times greater than in 2014.

Many are attracted by its economic prosperity, comparatively liberal asylum laws and generous benefits system.

Mrs Merkel has insisted Berlin can cope with the record-breaking influx without raising taxes, or risking its goal of a balanced budget.

She said Germany's strong economic position meant it was able to cope with such "unexpected tasks" as presented by Europe's worst migration crisis since the Second World War.

Nevertheless, a number of German cities have been struggling to process newly arrived asylum seekers and to meet the demand for additional housing.

Mrs Merkel's governing coalition is due to meet on Sunday to agree a series of measures to ease the crisis, including cutting red tape to allow the construction of new asylum shelters, speeding up asylum procedures and increasing funds for federal states and towns.

She has also warned that those who arrive in Germany who don't meet its criteria for asylum will be returned to their home countries.

According to Germany's Der Spiegel magazine, Germany has deported over 10,000 foreigners this year, many of them from countries it deems safe such as Serbia, Macedonia and Bosnia-Herzegovina.

The head of the Federal Agency of Migration and Refugees, Manfred Schmidt, told the magazine almost all of the 75,000 asylum requests filed by migrants from western Balkan countries by the end of 2015 were likely to be rejected, allowing Germany to focus on the influx of refugees.

Germany is expected to widen the list of countries it deems safe to include Kosovo, Albania and Montenegro.

Germany has been held up as an example by many in Europe for its handling of the crisis.

It's been compared to Britain that has come under fire both at home and among other European nations, chief among them, Germany, over its earlier reluctance to accept more refugees.

Mrs Merkel has repeatedly emphasised the need for refugees to be distributed more equally across EU states.

"This should be possible, because Europe is based on common values, and help for those in need of protection is one of them," she said.

Hungary has hit out at Germany for declaring it would accept Syrian requests regardless of where they enter the EU.

Budapest says this policy has pushed up the influx of migrants and, as with some other central European states including the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia, is resisting calls from some western EU leaders for each nation to accept a quota of refugees.

Prime Minister David Cameron announced on Friday that the UK would accept "thousands more" refugees from camps on the Syrian border, although he did not give a specific figure.

And he said Britain would provide an additional £100m in aid for Syrian refugees, bringing the total to more than £1bn.