BERLIN
Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel has come under widespread criticism Thursday for appearing indifferent to a refugee girl’s plight instead insisting on her government's asylum and deportation policies.
The video of a crying Palestinian refugee girl, who burst into tears after a response by Merkel to her appeal at a panel discussion on Wednesday in Rostock, sparked an outcry in social media.
Reem, whose parents, she says, came from Lebanon four years ago but face deportation soon, told Merkel that she wanted to stay in Germany and continue her education.
“I also have goals like others. I would like to continue my education, I would like to be successful,” Reem said.
“It is very difficult to see that others can really enjoy their lives and you yourself cannot,” she added.
Faced with remarks on a sensitive domestic policy topic in front cameras, Merkel struggled to defend her government’s asylum and deportation policies.
“I understand this, but politics is sometimes hard,” Merkel said.
She further argued that Germany could not manage to host all the Palestinians who are in refugee camps in Lebanon, or thousands of other asylum seekers from Africa.
Merkel said with recently adopted measures, Germany will try to conclude asylum applications in a short period of time.
“But some will have to go back,” she stressed.
Her remarks made the Palestinian girl burst into tears. Merkel then approached the girl and tried to stroke her hair.
“But you did a great job,” Merkel said.
The encounter sparked widespread criticism on social media and the twitter hashtag #merkelstreichelt, meaning “Merkel strokes,” has become the most popular one on Thursday in Germany.
Germany received a record of 202,834 asylum applications last year -- an increase of almost 60 percent compared with 2013. Almost 47,000 of the asylum seekers were Syrians.
As of February, the number of undecided asylum requests was 243,820.
Human rights organizations have criticized the German government for not fairly and swiftly assessing tens of thousands of asylum requests.
