Merkel during the 2015 vluchtelingencrisis crisis: ‘We did it’ | Buytenland

When asked whether Germany has succeeded in dealing with the crisis, Merkel replied: “Yes, wir haben das schafft” (“Yes, we succeeded”), referring to her legendary words “wir buy das” (“We succeeded.”) With whom she formulated Germany’s immigration policy in 2015.

“Yes, we succeeded. But there were also many people in Germany who helped, many mayors, many volunteers, many people who are still supporting today,” Merkel said. In 2015, it opened the door to an unprecedented number of immigrants, with the message that Germany can handle the growing influx of immigrants into Europe.

Merkel cites “beautiful examples of people who have developed successfully”, such as immigrants who completed high school in Germany, but also admits that not everything went smoothly. “There are also bad examples, just think of New Year’s Eve in Cologne,” she said, referring to the old to new in 2015-2016 when hundreds of women were assaulted and robbed. According to the Cologne Prosecutor’s Office, most of the perpetrators came from Algeria and Morocco.

Merkel has described the refugee and coronavirus crisis as the biggest challenges of her 16-year career as chancellor. It also pointed out a number of shortcomings at the international level with regard to migration. “Of course we have not yet succeeded in addressing the causes that lead people to flee. We have not yet succeeded in building a unified asylum and immigration system in Europe. We have not yet been able to find a self-regulating balance between countries of origin and countries of arrival of migrants. We need to do more. of the effort for development aid and legal immigration.” Because smugglers and traffickers “still have the upper hand”