Germany embraces role as defender of those in need

Embracing its role as a defender of those in need, Germany welcomed at least 10,000 more asylum seekers into the country Saturday. As aid workers worked to give all a firm roof over their weary heads, a packed stadium cheered the littlest newcomers, who walked hand-in-hand with the players from the country’s biggest soccer club. Germany over the past week has taken in more than 40,000 people fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East, Asia and Africa — and a poll has suggested broad support for the government’s course.

Sticking refugees in trains and sending them somewhere completely different to where they think they’re going reminds us of the darkest chapter of our continent’s history.

Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann, who likened Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s treatment of refugees to the Nazis’ deportation of Jews and others to concentration camps.

As Germany hoped to make the end of the migrants’ journey positive, tragedy continued to strike other links in the epic chain that leads from Syria to Turkey, through Greece and the Balkans, to Hungary and on to northern European nations. Greece’s coast guard said it was searching Saturday for four children aged 8 to 13 and a 20-year-old man who disappeared when two boats carrying 61 people from Turkey to the islands of Samos and Lesbos overturned in the Aegean Sea. Scores have drowned over the past year on that route, even though the sea crossing is relatively short.

The coastguard has assets searching the area.

Greek coastguard official.