In an interview with a German newspaper, the Dalai Lama said that while "we feel the misery" of each refugee and have a "responsibility to help" them, there are "too many" now living in Europe.
"Europe, for example, Germany, cannot become an Arab county," he told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. "There are so many." He added that "from a moral standpoint," refugees should just be "accommodated temporarily," with the ultimate goal being to get them back to their home countries to rebuild. Last year, Germany accepted more than 1 million refugees from Syria, Iraq, and other war-torn countries.