Germany has the capacity to limit migration flows to avoid a repeat of the 2015 refugee crisis, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said presenting her party’s electoral program on Monday.
Around a million people were said to have registered as asylum seekers in Germany in 2015, with authorities failing to account for over 130,000 of them, according to the Interior Ministry.
“We have a good and comprehensive toolkit for limiting migration,” Merkel said, adding that “2015 should not happen again.”
In December 2016, the number of migrants stopped at Germany’s borders doubled, with nearly 20,000 being turned away in 2016.
Germany announced that all Syrian asylum seekers were welcome to remain in Germany, suspending a 1990 protocol, which states that refugees should seek asylum in the first European country in which they set foot.
This humanitarian effort was summed up by Merkel’s phrase “Wir schaffen das” or “We can manage it.”