Don't be cold-hearted to our 1.1million refugees: Merkel begs Germans after her popularity drops over open door policy Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3380747/Don-t-cold-hearted-1-1million-refugees-Merkel-begs-Germans-popularity-drops-open-door-policy.

The influx of more than a million refugees should be welcomed as an 'opportunity', Angela Merkel told Germans last night.

The country's leader used her New Year address to urge citizens not to have 'coldness in their hearts' but to embrace the 1.1million newcomers.

Mrs Merkel has been blamed for fuelling the European migrant crisis by promising to welcome those who make it to Germany.

She was initially praised by Germans for her decision to allow many of those escaping war and poverty to stay. But with the numbers of migrants from the Middle East and Africa reaching more than a million, doubts have grown and her popularity has suffered.

A record 3,771 refugees have died trying to cross the Mediterranean in the last year. Yet Mrs Merkel yesterday stood firm about the need to embrace migration, urging Germans to see the challenge as an 'opportunity for tomorrow'.

The chancellor, who grew up in East Germany when it was behind the Iron Curtain, said in yesterday's TV address: 'Next year is about one thing in particular: our cohesion. It is important we don't allow ourselves to be divided.'

In a direct riposte to those staging anti-immigration rallies, she said: 'It is crucial not to follow those who, with coldness or even hatred in their hearts, lay a sole claim to what it means to be German and seek to exclude others.'