Merkel broke off her summer holiday to address reporters in Berlin on Thursday and began by clarifying her stance on the issue of refugees in Germany.
It follows a chaotic week in which an asylum seeker purportedly from Afghanistan went on a stabbing rampage in Würzburg and an asylum applicant from Syria blew himself up outside a music festival in Ansbach. In Reutlingen a Syrian killed a woman and injured two others. In Munich, a German-Iranian killed nine people before killing himself.
"That two men who came to us as refugees are responsible for the deeds in Würzburg and Ansbach mocks the country which took them in, and I want to add that it does not matter to me at all whether these refugees came to us along with many other refugees before or after the fourth of September last year," Merkel said, referring to the large influx of asylum seekers who came to Germany in late summer 2015 after Merkel made it easier for those hoping to reach Germany to do so.
The chancellor also announced a range of policy alterations and plans in light of the attacks, including the bolstering of police forces where possible.
Merkel: attacks by asylum seekers `mock` Germany
29 July 2016
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German Chancellor Angela Merkel faces the press after keeping a fairly low profile amid several attacks in Germany. She said that asylum seekers who commit attacks "mock" the country that welcomed them.
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