Majority of Germans Scared of Migrant Influx – Poll

Slightly over a half of all Germans now say that they are afraid of the rising migrant influx in their country, a new survey by the national ARD broadcaster has found.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The surging stream of refugees crossing in their thousands into Germany every day scares 51 percent of German respondents, the poll released on Thursday has shown, up from 38 percent in September.

The number of people unfazed by the migrant situation in the country has dropped from 59 percent to 47 over the past month.

The same survey has shown that Chancellor Angela Merkel’s open-door immigration policy has eroded her approval rating to a four-year low.

Speaking at the UN on Thursday, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said his country had accepted some 600,000 refugees since the start of the year, with 10,000 asylum seekers arriving every day. He stressed that Germany, the European Union’s biggest economy, could not cope with the task of supporting all the refugees on its own and called on other European nations to share the burden.