Germans Are Rapidly Losing Faith in Merkel's Refugee Policy: Poll

Increasingly fewer Germans believe that the country can handle the numbers of asylum seekers arriving, according to a new YouGov poll published on Tuesday.

Only one in three participants of the poll (33 percent) now agree with German Chancellor Angela Merkel when she says that Germany can cope with the numbers of people entering the country. This latest figure marks a decrease of 11 percent from a month ago according to Deutsche Welle. Around 64 percent of the polled Germans disagree with Merkel.

Merkel has repeatedly said that Germany can handle the crisis. In her annual summer news conference in September, she announced, "Germany is a strong country. We can make it."

But the results show a clear wavering of enthusiasm, with 56 percent of people surveyed agreeing with the statement that there are already too many asylum seekers in Germany—a figure that has risen by 10 percent in the space of a month. Only one in five Germans, 20 percent, believe that the country could still accommodate more asylum seekers, down from 28 percent a month ago.

German newspaper Bild reported earlier this month that Germany now expects 1.5 million asylum seekers this year, citing a confidential report, although this figure has not been confirmed by the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees.

Germany announced in August that it would disregard EU rules to allow applications from all Syrian refugees, regardless of which EU country they first entered. In doing so, it became the first EU country to suspend the EU's Dublin Regulation in relation to Syrian refugees.

The pollsters conducted a representative survey of 1,198 people between October 9 and 13.