Minister says Germany reaching its limits in refugee crisis: newspaper

[IceWizard]

Sun Sep 13, 2015 | 10:34 AM EDT

BERLIN (Reuters) -
German Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel said in a newspaper interview on Sunday that Germany was now reaching its limit as thousands of refugees continue to stream across its borders every day.

"It's true: The European lack of action in the
refugee crisis is now pushing even Germany to
the limit of its ability," he said in the interview
published on Der Tagesspiegel's website. "It's not so much the number of refugees as the
speed at which they're arriving that's making it
so difficult for the states and the municipalities
to cope," he added.

The German government is expecting 800,000
new arrivals this year. On Saturday around 13,000 arrived in Munich alone.

Gabriel said Germany and Europe should
together put up 1.5 billion euros ($1.7 billion) of
immediate aid to provide food, accommodation
and above all schools for the biggest refugee
camps in Jordan and Lebanon.

He urged the United States and the Gulf states to support the camp's refugees with the same amount.

"It's unacceptable that hundreds of billions of
euros can be mobilized to rescue banks within a few weeks but the international community can't even get together a fraction of that amount to save people," Gabriel said.



(Reporting by Michelle Martin; Editing by Greg
Mahlich)