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German Chancellor Angela Merkel cut short her holiday on Thursday to return to Berlin to take on criticism over her government's relaxed border policies in the wake of a number of violent attacks within Germany.
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In a press conference Thursday, Merkel vowed that she would not be changing her open-door policies and that Germany would "stick to our principles."
She said that while Germany "would give shelter to those who need it," in light of the recent attacks there was a need for better early warning systems to prevent terror attacks.
"Someone who is fleeing war and persecution has a right to be protected according to the Geneva conventions," Merkel said.
German conservatives and even some of the left-wing opposition and supporters of Merkel have said that her government's open-door refugee policy has been a failure. Last year Merkel claimed “we can do this,” in reference to Germany choosing to take in more refugee from war torn countries.
Last year more than one million refugees entered Germany, with many escaping violence and persecution in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, and making the treacherous journey across the Mediterranean sea.
Almost 3,000 refugees are reported to have died so far in 2016 in the Mediterranean, according to the International Organization of Migration. While Merkel has been criticized for the amount of refugees that Germany has taken in, most western countries, including Germany, have taken in a very small percentage of asylum seekers that exist, with many more seeking shelter in poor countries such as Turkey and Lebanon.
Oxfam showed in a recent report that the six richest countries in the world—the U.S., Germany, France, China, Japan and the U.K., which together make up 56.6 percent of the world economy—host only 2.1 million refugees combined, or less than 9 percent of the total number.
Merkel's distance from the recent attacks, both physical and rhetorically, has led her political opposition to criticize her calm approach and question her leadership.
German Interior minister Thomas de Maiziere commented, however, that none of the recent attackers in Germany had come into the country last year and indeed one of the attackers was born and raised in Germany.
On Sunday, a Syrian man blew himself up near a concert in the southern state of Bavaria, injuring at least 15 people. The man, believed to be aligned with the Islamic State group, was twice denied entry into Germany. He was instead send back to his point of entry in the EU, Bulgaria because of the civil war raging in Syria.
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On Friday, a mentally disturbed 18-year-old Iranian-German man shot nine people in a Munich shopping center before shooting himself; that assailant is believed to have affinity for the far right. On Monday, a 17-year-old Afghan refugee used an axe to injure four passengers on a train in Würzburg. And the day before, a 21-year-old Syrian refugee used a machete to kill a woman in injure others in Reutlingen, in the southwestern state of Baden-Württemberg.
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