BERLIN, Germany — Germany said Friday it had reached an agreement under which Greece would take back asylum seekers already registered there and voiced optimism about striking a similar deal with Italy.
The biggest EU country, where Chancellor Angela Merkel faces domestic pressure to reduce arrivals of migrants and refugees, had reached a similar deal with Spain on August 8.
"We have reached an agreement with Greece... and the conclusion is imminent," said interior ministry spokeswoman Eleonore Petermann, pointing to a last outstanding exchange of letters.
"We remain in talks with Italy, and these talks have advanced quite a long way," she added at a Berlin press conference. "We assume that an agreement will also be reached with Italy."
She gave no details on the Athens accord, but the agreement with Madrid allows Berlin to send back Spanish-registered migrants within 48 hours of their arrival on German soil.
Merkel has been under pressure to reduce the number of new arrivals after a record influx of more than a million asylum seekers between 2015 and 2016 unsettled Germany.
The issue of tighter border controls sparked a major clash in July between the chancellor and hardline Interior Minister Horst Seehofer which brought their coalition to the brink of collapse.
Germany has since sought a series of bilateral agreements with EU partners, after a broader accord for the bloc proved elusive.
Italy has however been reluctant. Its Interior Minister Matteo Salvini of the far-right League party has said Rome first expects to see more action to toughen the EU's external borders.
The German political row was triggered when Seehofer, who heads Merkel's more traditional CSU sister party, threatened to turn back migrants at German borders if they had already made asylum requests in other EU countries.
Fearing the domino-effect of borders slamming shut such unilateral action would unleash, Merkel instead pushed for a wider EU response that would include migrant return deals with the frontline states Greece, Italy and Spain.
The biggest EU country, where Chancellor Angela Merkel faces domestic pressure to reduce arrivals of migrants and refugees, had reached a similar deal with Spain on August 8.
"We have reached an agreement with Greece... and the conclusion is imminent," said interior ministry spokeswoman Eleonore Petermann, pointing to a last outstanding exchange of letters.
"We remain in talks with Italy, and these talks have advanced quite a long way," she added at a Berlin press conference. "We assume that an agreement will also be reached with Italy."
She gave no details on the Athens accord, but the agreement with Madrid allows Berlin to send back Spanish-registered migrants within 48 hours of their arrival on German soil.
Merkel has been under pressure to reduce the number of new arrivals after a record influx of more than a million asylum seekers between 2015 and 2016 unsettled Germany.
The issue of tighter border controls sparked a major clash in July between the chancellor and hardline Interior Minister Horst Seehofer which brought their coalition to the brink of collapse.
Germany has since sought a series of bilateral agreements with EU partners, after a broader accord for the bloc proved elusive.
Italy has however been reluctant. Its Interior Minister Matteo Salvini of the far-right League party has said Rome first expects to see more action to toughen the EU's external borders.
The German political row was triggered when Seehofer, who heads Merkel's more traditional CSU sister party, threatened to turn back migrants at German borders if they had already made asylum requests in other EU countries.
Fearing the domino-effect of borders slamming shut such unilateral action would unleash, Merkel instead pushed for a wider EU response that would include migrant return deals with the frontline states Greece, Italy and Spain.
Comments
Rudaw moderates all comments submitted on our website. We welcome comments which are relevant to the article and encourage further discussion about the issues that matter to you. We also welcome constructive criticism about Rudaw.
To be approved for publication, however, your comments must meet our community guidelines.
We will not tolerate the following: profanity, threats, personal attacks, vulgarity, abuse (such as sexism, racism, homophobia or xenophobia), or commercial or personal promotion.
Comments that do not meet our guidelines will be rejected. Comments are not edited – they are either approved or rejected.
Post a comment