Germany Is To Resolve Migration Crisis by Legal Means

BERLIN (Sputnik) — Germany is due to adopt the federal law on integration to mark a new step in resolving the issues of migrant admission, Chancellor Angela Merkel said Thursday.

"We [the members of the ruling coalition] agreed to work on the federal law on integration. It is due to be adopted for the first time in Germany's history," Merkel said at a press conference in Berlin.

According to the German chancellor, a number of issues related to the migration crisis are yet to be settled, namely to regularize migration flows and place them under control, as well as to integrate into the German society those migrants and refugees who have already arrived in the country.

Europe has been beset by a massive refugee crisis, with hundreds of thousands of undocumented migrants fleeing their home countries in the Middle East and North Africa to escape violence and poverty. A large number of them cross the Mediterranean Sea and arrive in the European Union using Greece or Italy as transit points.

Germany has become a key destination for the migrants fleeing war and poverty since the start of 2015. The country’s interior ministry estimates that Germany received around 1.1 million registered migrants last year alone. At the same time, German media reported, citing interior ministry officials, about 500,000 undocumented migrants currently staying in the country.