AP — A bus carrying 31 Syrian refugees is on the way from southern Germany to Berlin, as a Bavarian district councilor followed up on his pledge to German Chancellor Angela Merkel he’d send refugees her way if his district could no longer provide accommodation for them.
Landshut district councilor Peter Dreier said Thursday he wants to “send a sign that refugee policy cannot continue like this.”
The bus arrived at Merkel’s chancellery around 5 p.m Thursday.
Merkel’s spokesman Steffen Seibert in a statement said that housing refugees was the task of state and local governments, who received federal support for this.
The city state of Berlin had promised to help out and put up the 31 for the first night, Seibert said.
Dreier, who had travelled to Berlin separately by car, said he was disappointed by Merkel’s refusal to engage, calling it “an attempt to ignore and negate” the problem.
Landshut spokesman Elmar Stoettner told The Associated Press all 31 refugees on the bus have received asylum in Germany but were still living in migrant shelters because they were not able to find apartments.
Germany is struggling to provide accommodation for some 1.1 million asylum-seekers who registered here in 2015.
