BERLIN — German Chancellor Angela Merkel has criticized a food bank for refusing to accept any more migrants, calling the decision “not good”.

Essener Tafel, a charity that serves free meals to the poor, had come under fire after it said it would now require new customers to produce German identity papers as a huge migrant influx was displacing locals in need.

In an interview late Monday with RTL television, Merkel said: “One should not make such categorizations. That is not good.”

At the same time, the German leader acknowledged that the incident demonstrates the pressure that the volunteers are coming under.

More than 1.2 million asylum seekers have come to Europe’s biggest economy since 2015 — more than half from war-torn Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan — in a mass wave that sparked a xenophobic backlash.

Essener Tafel said last week it had taken the step in order to avoid friction between needy locals and foreigners that could harm acceptance of the newcomers.

Vandals at the weekend sprayed the word “Nazis” on the charity’s building and vans, an act police believe was in response to the food bank’s migrant halt.

The far-right AfD defended the charity’s policy on Facebook (in German), saying “if you fight back, you’re a Nazi”.

Like hundreds of other German food banks, Essener Tafel collects tons of surplus food at or past its sell-by date, which would otherwise be thrown away.

The charity’s managers are holding an emergency meeting now to tackle the row over its new policy, which took effect last month.

Essener Tafel head Jörg Sartor spoke angrily about the criticism. “A load of politicians are laying into us now — but they are ill-informed. They ought to reciprocate and help out here — after that they can voice an opinion, by all means.”

He defended his staff and said he was “sick and tired” of the criticism. “I’m almost ready to quit,” he said.

Earlier, he said the restriction had nothing to do with xenophobia; he said it was all about fairness, because large numbers of elderly women and single mothers had stopped coming to Essener Tafel. — Agencies