French PM: Merkel’s refugee policy ‘unsustainable in long-term’

Manuel Valls says Europe ‘has to regain control over its borders, over its migration or asylum policies’

By AFP 12 February 2016, 3:57 pm Edit

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls prepares to deliver his closing speech at the Health Conference organised by the government on February 11, 2016 in Paris. (AFP/JACQUES DEMARTHON)

BERLIN — German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s liberal refugee policy, which brought 1.1 million asylum seekers to Germany in 2015, is not sustainable in the long run, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls warned Friday.

“This policy, which is justified temporarily, is unsustainable in the long term,” he told German regional media group Funke, pointing to the limited capacity not just in Germany, but also across Europe, to receive newcomers.

“We have to say this clearly: Europe cannot take in all migrants from Syria, Iraq or Africa. It has to regain control over its borders, over its migration or asylum policies,” said Valls, who is travelling to southern Germany to attend the Munich Security Conference.

The French prime minister’s criticisms, which are due to be published on Saturday, came after his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev lambasted Merkel’s asylum policy.

Migrants and refugees wait in line at a registration camp in the southern Serbian town of Presevo on January 24, 2016. (AFP / ARMEND NIMANI)

“It’s quite simply stupid to open Europe’s doors wide and invite in everyone who wants to come to your country,” Medvedev said in an interview to be published this weekend by the economic daily Handelsblatt.

“European migration policy is a total failure, all that is absolutely frightening,” Medvedev added.

Opposition has been growing within Germany against Merkel’s decision to open the doors to those fleeing war and persecution.

An opinion poll published late January showed that nearly 40 percent of German voters want Merkel to quit over her asylum policy.

French President Francois Hollande (R) and German Chancellor Angela Merkel talk together at the Prefecture in Strasbourg, eastern France, on February 7, 2016, during a meeting about the migrants crisis. (AFP/POOL/Patrick Seeger)

The chancellor has pledged to “tangibly” reduce the number of migrants and asylum seekers arriving this year with a range of measures in Germany, on the European level and with the help of international partners such as Turkey.