Germany’s interior minister has criticised a “minority” of refugees who have absconded from or caused trouble in their allocated reception areas.

While insisting just a few were involved, Thomas de Maizière was adamant that migrants accept the relocations determined by Germany’s migration authorities.

“Until this summer, the refugees were grateful to be here with us,” he said. “They asked where the police were, where the authorities were, where they would be moved to. Now there are many refugees who believe they can reassign themselves, they leave our facilities, hail a taxi and, astonishingly, spend money travelling hundreds of kilometres through Germany, protest because they do not like the accommodation and cause trouble because they do not like the food.”

His comments coincide with recent poll results which appear to show growing resentment about the crisis among Germans. ARD public television released data showing 51 percent of Germans said they were now worried about the future, because of the migrant arrivals. This is up from 38 percent three weeks earlier.

Berlin has chosen to bear the brunt of migration to Europe, with over 200,000 of September’s arrivals to Germany seeking asylum.