Germany began tightening its deportation arrangements for migrants who are rejected for political asylum, including housing them in special expulsion centres.
After poor cooperation from a host of North African countries which have been slow to accept the return of their nationals, the weekend saw Germany take a number of steps to expedite the process.
Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel has threatened to withdraw development aid funds from countries which fail to cooperate.
“Germany is more than willing to give economic aid to North Africa, but only when the governments there reciprocate by allowing people whose asylum applications have been rejected to travel back into the country,” Gabriel, leader of the centre-left Social Democratic Party (SPD), she said on broadcaster ARD.
Only a very small proportion of asylum applications are granted to people from Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya, but the numbers arriving in Germany are increasing.
In the summer the Balkan states of Albania, Bosnia, Serbia Montenegro, Macedonia and Kosovo were deemed “safe countries of origin”, meaning that people arriving from these countries were highly likely to be returned. A sharp fall in asylum applications followed.
Pressure is being put on the German government to make the same categorisation for Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia.
Another measure is Germany’s plan to place North African asylum seeks in existing deportation facilities until their claims can be heard rather than housing them in shelters throughout the country.
The evaluation process usually lasts several months during which time the applicants have been spread among German’s 16 states.
In 2015, around 18,000 rejected asylum seekers were deported, but with nearly 1,000 applications rejected every day it is likely the 2016 figure will be much higher.
