'Open border' Germany could foot whopping £38bn bill for refugee crisis

It also predicts that the number of newly arriving immigrants could double to 2.2 million people by 2017 – more people than the population of every city in Germany except for the capital, Berlin.

If the experts are correct, the German ministry of finance will have to find ways of plugging up potential debt in what is already one of the most taxed countries in the world.

The study released by the Cologne Institute for Economic Research says: "A critical review of expenditure is required to avoid new debt”

The study comes as the German government deals with public outrage after the nation was rocked by mass sex attacks on New Year's Eve.

Meanwhile Chancellor Angela Merkel has been forced to backtrack on her open border policy which saw 1.1 million people enter the country last year.

At the time Merkel said Germany was a rich country that could afford to do its part, adding: "If Europe fails on the question of refugees... then it won't be the Europe we wish for.”

But last month she was forced to accept the darker impact of the refugee crisis after the Cologne sex attacks, admitting the situation was out of control.

She said: ”Now all of a sudden we are facing the challenge that refugees are coming to Europe and we are vulnerable, as we see, because we do not yet have the order, the control, that we would like to have.”

(dailystar.co.uk)