Germany and Spain reach deal on migrants
Germany in similar talks with Greece, Italy
BERLIN • Germany announced a new agreement Wednesday to return migrants to Spain.
The deal is an attempt to prevent migrants using the border-free Schengen area to travel across Europe.
Under the terms of the agreement, Spain has agreed to accept the return of migrants already registered there. They will be refused entry at the German border and deported.
“We welcome the willingness of Spain to co-operate,” a spokesman for the German interior ministry said, adding that the Spanish government had asked for nothing in return.
Spain has become the new preferred route for migrants attempting to reach Europe in recent months, and there are concerns many are using it as a transit point to reach Germany and other northern European countries.
But, although Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government portrayed the deal as a breakthrough in the European Union’s current gridlock over migrants, an agreement with Spain has never been in doubt, after Merkel secured Spanish and Greek support at an EU summit last month.
The real test for the new German policy will be whether it can reach a similar agreement with Italy, which remains the main route for migrants seeking to reach the German border, and whose populist government has made it clear it is opposed. Negotiations are still ongoing with both Italian and Greek governments, an interior ministry spokesman said.
The deal is the result of a compromise Merkel agreed to last month to head off a rebellion by Horst Seehofer, her interior minister, who was threatening to resign and bring down her government if she did not agree to his demands over migrant policy.
Seehofer threatened to pull his Christian Social Union party (CSU) out of her coalition government and deprive her of a parliamentary majority unless she agreed to his proposals to refuse entry to migrants who are already registered elsewhere.
Merkel warned a unilateral move by Germany could end hopes of securing an EU-wide policy, and Austria threatened to close its border with Italy if Germany turned back migrants.
Under the compromise, migrants will only be returned to those countries that have agreed to accept them.