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IMMIGRATION

Merkel praises diversity of national football team

Chancellor Angela Merkel has hailed the diverse German national football team as a force for acceptance of immigrants and integration of foreigners in the country.

Merkel praises diversity of national football team
The warm glow of approval... Photo: DPA

Merkel told ARD television on Sunday that the German side at the World Cup, in which 11 of the 23 players were born abroad or have immigrant parents, presented a more ethnically varied vision of the country than is often seen.

“It is an example of how role models can be created – role models for our whole country,” she said. “For those who are of German origin just as much as for those who want to integrate.”

She noted that the ratio of immigrants on the German team was higher than in the country as a whole “but those are our shared idols.”

Since Germany hosted the last World Cup in 2006, the chancellor has attended a host of matches, both domestic and international, to support the home side.

Polish-born Lukas Podolski and Miroslav Klose scored the first two goals in Germany’s 4-0 drubbing of Australia in their opening World Cup match last Sunday and Brazil-born Cacau came off the bench for a third. Mesut Özil, whose parents hail from Turkey, has taken over a key role in Germany’s midfield.

But Germany slumped to a 1-0 defeat by Serbia on Friday and must now beat Ghana on Wednesday to reach the knock-out phase.

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IMMIGRATION

France ‘will not welcome migrants’ from Lampedusa: interior minister

France "will not welcome migrants" from the island, Gérald Darmanin has insisted

France 'will not welcome migrants' from Lampedusa: interior minister

France will not welcome any migrants coming from Italy’s Lampedusa, interior minister Gérald Darmanin has said after the Mediterranean island saw record numbers of arrivals.

Some 8,500 people arrived on Lampedusa on 199 boats between Monday and Wednesday last week, according to the UN’s International Organisation for
Migration, prompting European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen to travel there Sunday to announce an emergency action plan.

According to Darmanin, Paris told Italy it was “ready to help them return people to countries with which we have good diplomatic relations”, giving the
example of Ivory Coast and Senegal.

But France “will not welcome migrants” from the island, he said, speaking on French television on Tuesday evening.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has called on Italy’s EU partners to share more of the responsibility.

The recent arrivals on Lampedusa equal more than the whole population of the tiny Italian island.

The mass movement has stoked the immigration debate in France, where political parties in the country’s hung parliament are wrangling over a draft law governing new arrivals.

France is expected to face a call from Pope Francis for greater tolerance towards migrants later this week during a high-profile visit to Mediterranean city Marseille, where the pontiff will meet President Emmanuel Macron and celebrate mass before tens of thousands in a stadium.

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