DHAKA: One million people may arrive in Germany seeking refugee status this year, up from the record 800,000 arrivals its government had earlier predicted.

Germany vice chancellor Sigmar Gabriel said, reports Al Jazeera.

‘There are many signs that Germany this year will take in not 800,000 refugees, as forecast by the interior ministry, but one million,’ he wrote to members of his centre-left Social Democratic party on Monday.

Germany on Sunday reintroduced identity checks on people traveling within the passport-free Schengen zone, essentially reversing its open-door policy for Syrians.

Slovakia’s interior ministry said on Monday that it had also renewed checks on its borders with Hungary and Austria. It said that more than 200 extra officers had been deployed at border crossings.

Gabriel stressed that ‘everyone who applies for asylum on German soil is allowed to stay here until a decision is reached. We are not changing that’.

‘The aim is, however, to maintain control of the borders in an unforeseeable and exceptional situation and to return to an orderly handling of refugee policy.’

BDST: 2131 HRS, SEPT 14, 2015
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