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Germany will tighten rules that permit refugees to bring families

A woman carried her child in the reception center tent city at the airfield in Bitburg, Germany.Harald Tittel/EPA

BERLIN — The German government is considering restoring controls on Syrian refugees arriving here after fleeing war in their homeland, and will significantly tighten rules allowing refugees to bring their families here, the Interior Ministry said Friday.

The announcement followed weeks of mounting doubt about whether Germany has the capacity to handle almost 800,000 refugees who have arrived so far this year and who could eventually total more than a million by year's end.

Chancellor Angela Merkel and her government have been accused of triggering the influx of refugees from Syria and elsewhere when the German office overseeing migration said in August that it would no longer check Syrian arrivals.

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Those pursuing asylum had already been arriving in Central Europe in increasing numbers earlier in the summer, but the pace quickened after that statement.