Germany seeks to limit migration from ‘safe’ North African countries

Germany wants to limit migration from North Africa by declaring Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia 'safe countries’, officials from the ruling coalition said on Monday, cutting their citizens’ chance of being granted asylum to virtually zero. The step is intended to reduce the number of arrivals from these countries and make deportations easier, CDU general Peter Tauber said after a meeting of senior party members. The initiative follows outrage over sexual attacks on women in Cologne on New Year’s Eve blamed predominantly on North African migrants that sharpened a national debate about the open-door refugee policy adopted by Chancellor Angela Merkel.

There cannot be a situation where you take the development aid but do not accept your own citizens when they can’t get asylum here because they have no reason to flee their country.

Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel

Merkel’s conservative party, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), agreed on Monday that Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia - troubled by unrest rather than full-blown conflict - should be designated safe countries. To help integrate refugees and defuse social tensions that have escalated since the Cologne attacks, Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel called on Monday for an extra €5 billion ($5.45 billion) a year in public spending on police, education and daycare. He said Germany needed 9,000 more police, 25,000 new teachers and 15,000 daycare workers, while funds for public housing should be doubled.