Chancellor Olaf Scholz, seeking to reduce the number of asylum seekers and stem support for the far-right, agreed on a tougher migration policy and new funding for refugees with the heads of Germany’s 16 states early on Tuesday.
Scholz’s government has agreed measures to make it easier to deport migrants and to make the country a less attractive destination in the first place, in stark contrast to Berlin’s perceived open-door policy under former Chancellor Angela Merkel.
The European Union is seeking to overhaul the bloc’s asylum and migration rules to reduce irregular migration and member countries are attempting to cut their own deals with Rome announcing on Monday it would build centres in Albania to host sea migrants trying to come to Italy.
The meeting in Berlin was aimed at garnering state leaders’ support for such moves and addressing local authorities’ complaints that public coffers and infrastructure are overburdened.
