Germany is set to break an agreement made after the Second World War never to use its army for anything other than defence or a national emergency, by deploying it to assist in the growing humanitarian crisis caused by thousands of migrants arriving on its soil.

The state premier of Saxony — which includes Leipzig and Dresden — Holger Stahlknecht has described the number of refugees in Germany as an "international crisis resulting in conditions resembling the migration of entire peoples." He demanded "the current restriction of the German army to foreign deployments and disaster response" to be reconsidered.

Germany will take 400,000 migrants/refugees in 2015 and UK expects 26k this year. Italy 170k. As FT points out no support for UK meanness — Denis MacShane (@DenisMacShane) August 4, 2015

The army has now been deployed, but there is rising concern over whether it has broken the agreement following the Second World War that it would only be deployed in a defense role or in the event of a national emergency.

"We are strictly opposed to changing the basic law of the country for this purpose," said Rüdiger Erben, deputy leader of the SPD in the central state of Saxony-Anhalt, where troops were called in. However, many say the huge rise in migrants settling in Germany has made this a national emergency in itself.

Germany has been hit by a swath of migrants coming in from the Balkans, the Middle East and Africa and the refugee camps set up across the country are bursting at the seams. Around 80,000 arrived last month alone and conditions at the temporary camps are said to be appalling.

Army and Fire Brigade Offer Help

According to Reuters, the number of immigrants living in Germany rose by 3.7 percent last year to a record high of 11 million and a fifth of the population is of a migrant background, the Federal Statistics Office said on Monday.

Number of immigrants in Germany rose by 3.7% last year to record high of 11 million. 20% of population is of migrant background #migration — Jammu Saloniemi (@jammusaloniemi) August 4, 2015

Many of the immigrants came from other European Union countries, such as Poland, Romania, Italy, Bulgaria and Hungary.

The migrant crisis in Germany has become so large that officials are resorting to drastic measures to accommodate them. German newspaper Handelsblatt reported that retired state officials are being brought in to help and that ships or even gyms and sports clubs are being considered for migrant camps. 6,000 refugees are expected to arrive in Nord Rhein Westphalia this week alone.

Radio Hamburg reported that 200 refugees were being housed in the exercise hall of the State Fire Academy. The refugee situation in Hamburg is particularly acute because the city was created enough space for the growing number of asylum seekers. Both the army and the fire brigade and army now help out in keeping the immigrants.