Bayern Munich footballers take to the pitch with migrant mascots in a show of solidarity with refugees entering Germany

Home Top

Three brothers shot dead on a driveway after an argument over music in Louisiana before the gunman killed himself
Clooney says history will 'laugh' at Trump: Movie star takes aim at The Donald over his 'idiotic' Mexican immigrant comments
Stay away from the grave, Amanda Knox is told by Meredith Kercher's family after she said wanted to pray there
Man, 44, who was jailed for minor traffic violations is left comatose after prison guards blocked paramedics from taking him to hospital
Post-apocalyptic scenes in California as 85 homes are completely destroyed by raging wildfire that has blitzed 40,000 acres in 12 HOURS - as state of emergency is declared
She may be single and have no children but Sex and the City star Kim Cattrall still considers herself a mother
'Rest in peace Big Mo': NBA Hall of Famer Moses Malone has died of an apparent heart attack at the age of 60 after he failed to show up to a Virginia golf tournament
Nearly 30 percent of Americans still think Obama is Muslim...and 20 percent don't believe he was born in the US
Will the Fed strike this week? Experts say interest rate rise a 'very close call'
'I was holding my stomach feeling the blood leave': Mother whose baby was sliced from her womb by a stranger describes regaining consciousness, holding her gushing belly in and calling 911- unaware her baby was gone
Florida scrap yard owner named Dennis discovers Dennis the Menace statue that was stolen 3,000 miles away from a California playground in 2006
Air India grounds nearly 125 crew members because they are overweight
Blind people CAN be racist too: Study finds the visually impaired use clues in voices and names to stereotype others
Facebook is sued by father of vulnerable girl who was exposed to sexual predators on the site when she was aged just 11
Hugh's looking at you! Elizabeth Hurley and ex-boyfriend Grant step out for a casual jaunt... but the actor can't take his eyes off pretty shorts-clad young woman
Elton wants gay debate with Putin: Singer says he wants to meet Russian president to challenge his stance on homosexuality
Denver canyon remains closed because too many people are taking selfies with bears
'It was super twisted': Former high school student claims she had a secret sexual relationship with female assistant principal when she was 17 and it was covered up
Terrorists WILL hit the West, warns former British MI6 chief Sir John Sawers
Los Angeles police department unveils it's latest tool in the fight against a crime - a tiny electric powered BMW police car
Are YOU wearing your eyeliner wrong? Makeup artist for Kate Moss and Gisele reveals professional tricks that will flatter every face shape
Georges de Paris, French tailor to American presidents from Lyndon Johnson to Obama, dies aged 81
Three teenagers arrested after ANOTHER car is shot in Arizona: Phoenix police take on TWELFTH vehicle 'sniper' case in just three weeks
'We can't take any more': Germany finally pulls up the drawbridge, stops ALL trains from Austria and temporarily suspends EU open-borders agreement

Youngsters were applauded by 75,000 football fans at the Allianz Arena
Players held hands with migrant and German kids in 'symbol of integration'
Bayern, like many German clubs, offered support to people fleeing war

Published: 12:28 EST, 12 September 2015 | Updated: 14:11 EST, 12 September 2015

View
comments

Bayern Munich footballers took to the pitch with migrant mascots today in a show of solidarity with the thousands of refugees entering Germany.

The youngsters were applauded by 75,000 football fans after emerging from the tunnel at the Allianz Arena with some of the world's best players.

The players held hands with a migrant child on one side and a German child on the other for what the club says was 'a symbol for the integration of refugees.'

Show of solidarity: Bayern Munich footballers, including (L-R) Philipp Lahm, goalkeeper Manuel Neuer and Thomas Mueller took to the pitch with migrant mascots today in a show of solidarity with the thousands of refugees entering Germany

Some of the children waved shyly to the crowd while others simply soaked it all in - the culmination of long treks across Europe that were fraught with danger, hunger and fear.

Bayern, like many German clubs, has offered support to people fleeing war and poverty.

The club is donating one million euros (£730,000) to refugee projects and arranging a training camp to give youths German lessons, meals and soccer equipment.

The gesture comes as Germany braces itself for the arrival of some 40,000 migrants over the next two days, more than double the number who entered the country last weekend.

The nation has deployed around 4,000 troops to help cope with another huge influx of people, as it struggles to continue welcoming migrants and refugees.

Most of the predicted new-arrivals are expected in the southern city of Munich, but there are serious concerns as to how the region will cope with the numbers.

Journey's end: Some of the children waved shyly to the crowd while others simply soaked it all in - the culmination of long treks across Europe that were fraught with danger, hunger and fear

Supportive: Bayern, like many German clubs, has offered support to people fleeing war and poverty

Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen announced that the troops were being called in to ‘support efforts to care for refugees’.

‘They will provide a helping hand, for example to set up a refugee camp, to help with organisation, provide buses and drivers, other types of transport, medical services and equipment, anything of that kind,’ a Defence Ministry spokesman told The Local.

Germany has become a hot-spot for Syrian refugees fleeing their war-torn home country, after it waived EU rules in August.

The government announced that the nation would take in applications for Syrian asylum-seekers, regardless of where they first arrived in the EU.

Formerly, EU rules had stated that refugees would have to seek asylum in the first EU country that they reached, and were unable to continue with their journey until the application had been processed.

This method was putting impossible pressure on Europe’s southern nations as they struggled to cope with the crisis.

Hundreds of thousands of refugees and economic migrants have arrived in Europe this summer, making their way from Turkey and Greece, across the Balkans and into Hungary.

Their ultimate destinations are the western European nations of Germany, Austria and Sweden.

Refugees saw a warm welcome at Munich rail station last weekend, but thousands more arrived in the country over the past week and the city is now buckling under the pressure.

New-arrivals: Most who reach Germany are coming into the southern city of Munich, which is calling on other regions to help

Smiles of relief: A group of refugees and migrants arrive overnight at Munich's main train station. They are transferred to accommodation on arrival

The Mayor of Munich Dieter Reiter described others regions’ failure to act as ‘scandalous’, according to state broadcaster ARD, as he called for their support in accommodating the new-arrivals.

In an effort to accommodate the numbers, the government is reported to be considering taking control of unoccupied rental property.

Further plans exist to launch a processing hub in the north of the country, on the Luneberg Heath in Lower Saxony.

Trains would be scheduled to take migrants to the site directly from Austria.

But efforts to soften up Germany’s eastern EU neighbours made little progress at meetings in Prague on Friday.

‘Despite the willingness of German people our possibilities are smaller and smaller,’ foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier told his counterparts from the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia and Poland yesterday.

The foreign minister went on to describe the migrant situation as ‘the biggest challenge for the EU in its history’.

‘If we are united in describing the situation as such, we should be united that such a challenge is not manageable for a single country,’ he continued.

‘We need European solidarity.’

Protests in support of welcoming migrants and refugees are expected across Europe today, with tens of thousands of supporters predicted to join the march through the streets of London, which started at Marble Arch at midday.

Waves of people: Germany is going to extremes to welcome the new-arrivals, but is struggling to cope with the huge numbers

Huge numbers: Refugees and migrants are met by police at the central train station in Munich late on Friday, as the country braces for some 40,000 people expected to arrive this weekend