German politicians argue about the right direction of migration policy. It also involves the question of which country should be considered a safe country of origin. CDU Chair Friedrich Merz is now pushing for more countries to be added to the list.

Recognition rates in countries such as Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria and India are “in the thousandths range,” Merz said Funke media group newspapers. “These countries must be recognized as safe countries of origin so we can return there quickly.” “The fundamental right to asylum has limitations in recognizing the true reasons for seeking asylum,” said the leader of the Union faction in the Bundestag.

In a safe country of origin, German authorities assume that asylum seekers are not threatened by state-sanctioned persecution and that the laws of their country of origin also protect them from non-state abuse. All EU countries, Ghana and Senegal as well as Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia, North Macedonia, Albania, Kosovo and Montenegro are currently on the list of safe countries of origin.

There are limits to what we can do, and those limits have now been exceeded.

Friedrich MerzCDU chairman

The traffic lights coalition under Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) has come to a decision on WednesdayGeorgia and Moldova to the safe country of origin list. But approval from the Bundestag and Bundesrat is still pending. Migration agreements will also be drawn up with the two countries, allowing legal immigration to Germany.

Refugee organization Pro Asyl criticized the decision and called on the federal government to “drop the precautionary concept of a so-called safe country of origin”.

Merz accused the Greens of not wanting “to be allowed to talk to a safe home country”. The Greens even deny “that there is illegal migration”.

The CDU boss continued: “We are facing the second biggest refugee crisis after 2015/2016. This is a huge burden. City governments can no longer do this, and the federal government must finally take this seriously,” said the CDU leader. “We provide asylum, we help the most persecuted people in this world, but we also must not push ourselves too hard,” said Merz. “There are limits to what we can do and those limits have now been exceeded.”

A few days ago too FDP Secretary General Bijan Djir-Sarai classification of another country as a safe country of origin. “Besides Georgia and Moldova, we also need other similar states Declare Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia as safe countries of origin“, he told the Bayern media group newspaper.

“On top of that, we should get much better returns and consistent deportations, also to countries like Afghanistan. So far we haven’t deported anyone there.” The government must find a way to do this.

Djir-Sarai also said that reform of Europe’s general asylum system was an “important first step in the right direction” that other countries should follow. “This agreement has shown that the will exists and the knowledge of it exists to talk about increasing the EU’s border management capabilities, about physical borders and fences. This has been a taboo topic for far too long.”

The FDP Secretary General demanded there should be “clear signals” that illegal immigration was not promising.

According to the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees, 175,272 people had applied for asylum in Germany for the first time at the end of July. – the figure is about 78 percent higher compared to the same period last year. (glue)