German Chancellor Olaf Scholz provided assessments of immigration and refugee policy while attending a Protestant Church event in Nuremberg.

Despite not being an EU member state, Germany receives the most asylum requests, according to Scholz, who also noted that the majority of unauthorized immigrants arriving in Germany are not registered in other EU nations.

Scholz saw the large number of illegal immigrants coming from Germany and quipped, "I made this joke in the Council of Europe. Germany must have a sizable Mediterranean coastline. Because the majority of refugees who enter Europe across the Mediterranean, according to the nations with coastlines along the sea, arrive in Germany, he said.

Social media users reacted to German Chancellor Scholz's remarks, which he characterized as "jokes".

There were more than 1,150 fatalities in the Mediterranean alone in 2023, according to the German non-governmental group Sea Watch, which tries to rescue unauthorized migrants with ships in the Mediterranean. The chancellor had an awful joke in his head. There were sayings like, "He who can laugh should not run the country.

Matthias Hauer, a member of parliament for the Christian Democratic Union Party (CDU), added that a German prime minister shouldn't make light of other people's pain.

A Social Democratic Party (SPD) member named Lilly Baudszun stated, "A Social Democratic President should never talk about people like that."