Migrants face being sent home
GERMANY: Angela Merkel has met with German state governors to hammer out tough measures to speed up the forced repatriation of tens of thousands of rejected asylum seekers.
The move by the German chancellor came as police announced that they had arrested two Islamists and averted another terrorist attack - and as a poll revealed that European voters hold views on immigration that are closer to United States President Donald Trump’s than those of their own leaders.
An average of 55 per cent of respondents across 10 European countries - including 53 per cent in Germany - agreed with the statement that ‘‘all further migration from mainly Muslim countries should be stopped’’, according to the poll by the respected Chatham House think tank.
Merkel, weakened by her opendoor refugee policy that has let in more than a million migrants since the start of 2015, knows that she needs to speed up the repatriation rate to boost her chances of winning a fourth term in September. Germany rejected more than 170,000 asylum applications last year but repatriated only 26,000 people.
The 16-point plan would allow police to detain people deemed to be a threat, and ‘‘federal departure centres’’ to be built near airports to house rejected applicants.
Gaps in the system were exposed last year by the failure to deport Tunisian Islamic State supporter Anis Amri, who had been denied asylum six months before he killed 12 people by driving a truck through a Christmas market in Berlin.
Other proposed steps include the creation of an organisation to co-ordinate mass deportations and speed up the process of obtaining the necessary documents from the migrants’ home countries. There will also be an increase in financial incentives to boost voluntary departures.
In the central city of Gottingen, police said 450 officers had conducted 12 co-ordinated raids on Islamists, arresting two people and recovering guns, munitions and a machete. ‘‘There was an imminent danger that had to be averted,’’ said Uwe Luhrig, the police chief.
The two men arrested, a 27-year-old man of Algerian descent and a 23-year-old man of Nigerian descent, were born in Germany.
Attitudes in Europe to Muslim immigration appear to have hardened in those countries most affected by Islamist attacks in the Chatham House poll. - The Times