As the influx of thousands of refugees and irregular immigrants to Greece continues at an alarmingly increasing rate, with estimates putting the number of third country nationals on the eastern Aegean island of Lesvos at 11,000, German Chancellor Angela Merkel called for a fairer distribution of migrants across EU countries.

In an interview to Deutsche Welle on Sunday, Merkel expressed her support for the integration of legal refugees into Germany, underlining however, that those whose asylum applications have been rejected would be deported from the country.

The German leader said EU countries bearing the brunt of the migration problem should receive more solidarity by other EU member states. Meanwhile, former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroder, in an article published in German newspaper ‘Welt’, expressed the view that: ‘If we (Germany) want a socially and economically powerful state in the future then we need immigration’.