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Friedrich Merz wants to hold asylum procedures outside of Germany

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Hannes P Albert / dpa

The CDU chairman Friedrich Merz wants to reduce the number of refugees coming to Germany to less than 100,000 per year.

»Over 300,000 a year, like in 2023, is definitely too much.

I think what Michael Kretschmer said - 60,000 to 100,000 - roughly describes what we can still achieve today with our integrative power," said Merz to the "Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung".

Saxony's Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer recently mentioned an upper limit of "50,000 or 60,000 refugees per year."

Merz answered yes to the question of whether he would travel around the world as Chancellor and look for options for asylum procedures in third countries.

»Yes, like Ursula von der Leyen did with the migration agreements for Europe and Emmanuel Macron for France.

A trip like this by the Chancellor would be long overdue,” said the Union faction leader.

In order to make Britain's so-called Rwanda model applicable to Germany, it is important to "clarify how the procedures in Rwanda will be designed in accordance with our human rights obligations."

Merz described the Albania model that Italy is pursuing as a “role model.”

What is crucial is “that humanitarian protection is actually guaranteed in the receiving country after a successful asylum application.”

The conservative British government wants to deter migrants with strict laws and deport those who have entered the country illegally to Rwanda without taking personal circumstances into account.

Last year, Italy signed a memorandum of understanding with Albania to set up two centers in Albania to receive migrants rescued in the Mediterranean.

According to the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (Bamf), 329,120 people applied for asylum for the first time in Germany in 2023 - most of them came from Syria, Turkey and Afghanistan.

That was around 50 percent more initial applications than in 2022. As a result of the Russian war of aggression that began two years ago, there are currently around 1.14 million refugees from Ukraine living in this country who do not have to apply for asylum.

svs/dpa