Germany moves to restrict migration

GERMANY’S top security official has unveiled his new plan to control and limit migration, which he called a “turning point” in the country’s asylum policy.

The main goals of the 63-point “migration master plan” include the quick deportation of people living in Germany whose asylum applications have been rejected, who already registered for asylum in another European country or who have a criminal record, interior minister Horst Seehofer said.

Mr Seehofer, who has long pushed Chancellor Angela Merkel to take a harder line against migrants, said the new plan also envisions placing all asylum seekers in large centres to have their applications processed there. Asylum seekers are currently mostly distributed to small homes across the country, though some states have already introduced centres where hundreds of applicants must stay for months while awaiting decisions.

The new plan also foresees that asylum applicants who previously registered in another EU country will be taken directly back to where they first entered the EU – primarily Greece and Italy.

That issue had led to a clash between Mr Seehofer and Mrs Merkel, who repeatedly insisted that Germany should not act unilaterally by sending back asylum seekers to other European countries that would then have to bear the biggest burden of the influx.

The controversy ended last week with a compromise in which Germany will have to make agreements with affected countries before sending back asylum seekers there.