Announcing the agreement, Merkel said the process for many asylum seekers would be sped up. “We want to show that Germany is an open country that we are proud of and which has a good reputation in the world”. At least two of them are set to be established in the southern German state of Bavaria, which has been receiving the bulk of the refugees arriving via the Balkans and Austria.
Britain has also refused to allow around 120 migrants who landed at a British military base in Cyprus to leave, telling them they must claim asylum in Cyprus under European Union rules or be returned to the last country they were in.
The coalition partners however rejected a conservative proposal for closed “transit zones” to be set up along the Austrian border, which the Social Democrats had likened to “internment camps”.
“The likelihood of an agreement is large, as we are aware that people expect politicians not to argue, but to come to solutions”, Ralf Stegner, deputy chairman of the SPD, told radio station hr-iNFO.
Most of the measures agreed Thursday would only apply to migrants from so-called safe countries, specifically Albania and Kosovo, whose applications are routinely denied by the German authorities.
The coalition heads have expressed hope that the speedy return of such refugees free up resources for those truly threatened.
Seehofer, the chairman of the Bavarian sister party of Merkel’s Christian Democrat Union, was assuaged by the chancellor’s commitment to reduce the number of refugees. In addition, refugees would be asked to pay part of the expenses for the German courses provided upon entering the country.
The new policy, according to the joint statement, calls for the creation of five special centers for refugees.
Following her meeting with coalition partners, Merkel has also held talks with the heads of federal states, focusing on the question how asylum procedures and repatriations could be accelerated and implemented more effectively.
Europe’s top economy registered more than 758,000 asylum seekers from January to October, the interior ministry said, with Syrians making up one third, followed by citizens of war-torn Iraq and Afghanistan.
