Photo Gallery Approaching Its Limits
Migrants walk to the Austrian border in Nickelsdorf from Hegyeshalom, Hungary on Sept. 26. Most of these refugees are making their way to Germany, where Chancellor Angela Merkel announced one month ago that the country would not reject Syrian refugees seeking protection from dictator Bashar Assad's barrel bombs.
Merkel's policy has led to a mass influx of refugees, with the government of Bavaria saying that as many as 10,000 new arrivals cross the border from Austria each day. Initially, the mood in Germany was positive, but officials fear it is beginning to tip in the other direction. Over the weekend, around 2,500 people gathered in the town of Sebnitz in the eastern German state of Saxony to protest the refugees in Germany.
Chancellor Merkel has said repeatedly to fellow Germans, "We can do it," when it comes to addressing the challenge of the number of refugees coming to live in the country. But in many places, local officials are starting to say they can't take the burden any longer. Pictured here is a tent camp for refugees in Hamburg.
Many of the biggest critics of Merkel's pro-refugee stances are within her own party. Interior Minister Thomas de Maizìere (left), once a firm ally of the chancellor, is starting to take his own positions on some issues in the refugee crisis.
A refugee child at a temporary shelter in a sports hall in Hanau, near Frankfurt, Germany. Some have argued that by stating that there is no upper ceiling on the number of refugees allowed in under Germany's asylum laws, the chancellor opened the country's door very wide without knowing how it can be closed again.
Another child enjoys a warm meal at the same temporary shelter in Hanau. Chancellor Merkel said over the weekend: "To turn my back on this now or to complain is not my style." She also admitted that Germany now stands "before new challenges, the scale and scope of which we have not experienced before."
Refugees wait to be registered in Berlin. A growing number of politicians have the impression that Merkel's government does not have the refugee situation under control. Over the weekend, Bavarian Governor Horst Seehofer, who heads the sister party to Merkel's Christian Democratic Union, warned that if limits aren't placed on immigration, the situation could be faced with "collapse" this winter.
Many are calling for Merkel to close Germany's borders, but the chancellor and her staff do not believe this is possible -- for practical reasons alone. Trains like this special charter for refugees pulling into the station at Berlin's Schönefeld airport are taking refugees to different sites across the country where they are provided with accommodations.
