23.10.2014 18:08 h

Bayern players visit youth refugee centre

Bayern Munich players have paid a visit to a refugee centre in their southern German city, the club said Thursday, as the country faces a large influx of asylum seekers.

Players including Bastian Schweinsteiger and Holger Badstuber visited the centre that is home to some 250 minors who arrived without parents or siblings, on Wednesday after the team returned from an audience with Pope Francis in the Vatican.

"These young men have nothing other than what they are wearing. I believe we have a duty to help them and others," said club president Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, after the delegation donated clothes and sports equipment, according to a club statement.

Germany this year expects some 200,000 asylum seekers to cross its borders, nearly 60 percent more than in 2013.

New refugee shelters have been set up across the country, including in former army barracks and schools, to accommodate the refugees, many of whom arrive from war-torn Syria and Iraq.

In Bavaria, one of Europe's richest regions, some refugees have had to sleep in tents, while others have been housed in the Munich Olympic Stadium, site of the 1972 Summer Games.

Germany will next Tuesday host an international conference on Syria's refugee crisis.