Merkel relaxes migrant controls on Austrian border

ANGELA MERKEL’S government has agreed a heavily watered-down version of plans to control migrant numbers on the German-austrian border.

But it now appears the “transit camps” at the heart of the plans will be existing police stations, which are expected to handle only around five cases a day.

And the government has quietly dropped plans to turn away migrants who are already registered in another EU country unless Germany has a bilateral deal to deport them.

Mrs Merkel’s main coalition partner, the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD), agreed to the planned measures at a meeting on Thursday.

“There will be no unilateral action and no camps,” Andrea Nahles, the SPD leader said.

Horst Seehofer had threatened to resign as Interior Minister and pull his Christian Social Union party out of Mrs Merkel’s coalition unless he got his way over migrant policy. He said: “This is everything you would want from A to Z as the minister responsible. You see before you a very satisfied minister.”

But as details of what was agreed emerged yesterday, it became clear the government has shelved many of his

‘This is everything you would want from A to Z. You see before you a very satisfied minister’

key demands. Crucially, Germany will now only refuse entry to migrants already registered in another EU country with which it has a bilateral deal.

Mr Seehofer had demanded unilateral action to turn away all migrants registered in another country at the border. That idea appears to have been dropped after a furious response from Austria, which feared it would be forced to accept migrants turned back by Germany and warned it would be forced to impose controls on its own southern borders.

The measures now planned are essentially the same ones Mrs Merkel offered Mr Seehofer a week ago, and which he rejected.

While Spain and Greece have agreed bilateral deals to take back migrants, other countries – including Italy, the key transit route to Austria and Germany – have refused.

The government has also dropped the idea of purpose-built “transit camps” after the SPD said it would not agree to any closed facilities. Instead, existing police stations will be used as “transfer camps” to carry out express asylum procedures within 48 hours.

The “transfer camps” will only operate on the border with Austria, prompting accusations that the measures are aimed at regional elections later this year in Mr Seehofer’s home state of Bavaria, where the Austrian border lies.