Poll finds most Spaniards would welcome refugees from Syria

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• Survey shows 52% of Spaniards say country can accept more refugees

• Economic capacity to absorb more remains concern for 64% of those polled

A Europe-wide survey of citizen attitudes toward accepting refugees fleeing wars and civil strife in the Middle East and Africa indicates that a majority of Spaniards would welcome the arrival of refugees to Spain.

The survey, conducted by French polling agency IFOP across six European countries, found that 52 percent of Spaniards interviewed disagreed with the view that Spain already has enough foreign immigrants and that it is therefore not possible to accept any more.

At the same time, only 36 percent of Spaniards polled agreed that Spain has the financial and economic wherewithal to accommodate the refugees, suggesting nearly two-thirds of those polled are concerned that Spain may have limited capacity to absorb too many refugees into its economy.

Spain has agreed to accept 14,931 under a quota scheme devised by the EU, but has since rejected a German plan for more permanent sharing of refugees across the EU.

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