BERLIN, Sept 10 (Askume) – The German government on Tuesday planned to impose stricter European asylum rules that would result in more people being turned away at its borders, a day after it announced it would begin banning all asylum seeking at land border controls
The proposals include detaining asylum seekers while authorities determine whether Germany has responsibility for processing their cases with the help of Europe’s shared fingerprint database, Eurodac, and other tools, Interior Minister Nancy Fesser said at a news conference.
“We want people whose asylum procedures are handled by another EU country to be sent back there,” Fesser said.
The measures reflect Germany’s tough stance on immigration as an influx of asylum seekers from the Middle East and Ukraine threatens to strain relations with other European countries.
“We will engage at a high political level with our European partners to ensure they comply with European rules by approving re-entry to their countries more quickly,” Fesser said.
However, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk had already on Tuesday criticised Germany’s tightening of border controls, calling for urgent consultations with other affected countries and more support for Warsaw’s own immigration policies.
In a televised debate ahead of Austrian parliamentary elections on Sept. 29, Chancellor Karl Nehammer told state broadcaster ORF that if Germany takes steps to send more migrants back across the two countries’ shared border, Austria would do the same, sending more people eastward to the Balkans.
The centre-left government of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz made detailed proposals to speed up border denial in talks with the conservative opposition that failed on Tuesday, with the latter complaining they were not doing enough.
However, Scholz’s three-way coalition does not need conservative approval to advance the proposals, and they also want discussions with local governments before implementation.
Berlin said it was essential to address irregular migration, which places an excessive burden on public services, and to protect the population from threats such as Islamist extremism.
Recent deadly knife attacks, in which the suspect was an asylum seeker, have raised concerns about immigration. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for a knife attack in the western city of Solingen in August that killed three people.
Mainstream parties are trying to seize the initiative from the far-right Alternative for Germany, which has capitalized on concerns about immigration and seen its support surge in recent years.
On September 1, the Alternative for Germany became the first German far-right party to win a state election in Thuringia since World War II.
However, Markus Engler of the German Centre for Integration and Migration Studies said the impact of the new proposals could be limited, as asylum seekers are likely to find ways around the recommendations and other EU countries appear reluctant to accept asylum seekers.
