Rival rallies staged in Germany over refugees

Rival rallies have been held in several cities across Germany as demonstrators for and against a recent influx of refugees into the country take to the streets.

A rally was held in support of refugees in the eastern city of Dresden on Monday.

Some 10,000 people also participated in a march organized by the extremist anti-refugee group PEGIDA in the same city.

In the capital, Berlin, scuffles broke out as nearly 100 far-right protesters from a PEGIDA offshoot were met by a large counter-demonstration.

Violence also erupted in the city of Dortmund as pro-refugee activists attempted to block a far-right gathering.

Several pro-refugee demonstrators were detained by police after they broke into the event organized by right-wing political party “Die Rechte.”

Hundreds of PEGIDA extremists also marched through Munich, decrying what they called the mass immigration of Muslim refugees into Germany.

The far-right protests come even as German Chancellor Angela Merkel has voiced support for the asylum seekers reaching Germany.

“The right to political asylum has no limits on the number of asylum seekers,” Merkel said in a Saturday interview with the Funke consortium of newspapers.

According to German officials, some 800,000 refugees are expected to arrive in the country by the end of this year.

In recent months, Europe has been facing an unprecedented influx of refugees, mainly coming from conflict-hit countries like Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan. Most of the refugees land in Italy or Greece, and then head for the wealthier countries of northern Europe by transiting through countries in Eastern Europe and the Balkans, like Macedonia, Serbia, and Hungary.

Almost 340,000 asylum seekers reached the borders of the European Union (EU) during the first seven months of the year, up from 123,500 during the same period in 2014, according to the bloc’s border agency, Frontex.