Brussels, 01/02/2016 (Agence Europe) - The German government is expected to adopt new rules on Wednesday 3 February restricting the right of asylum in Germany, following an agreement at the end of last week between the two parties in the ruling coalition.
Algerian, Moroccan and Tunisian nationals will no longer have the right of asylum in Germany, these three countries having been deemed “safe”. Their applications will be fast-tracked.
In September 2015, the European Commission set out an EU list of so-called safe countries, which included the Balkan states and Turkey (see EUROPE 11385). No EU-wide agreement has yet been achieved on this list that was supposed to complement national lists.
Following on from Denmark, the German government is now also looking to toughen family reunification criteria for third country nationals who are not entitled to the right of asylum but who are unable to return to their own countries because of the political situation there.
Temporary stays. At a political meeting in Mecklenburg on Saturday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she expected Syrian and Iraqi refugees, entitled to stay temporarily (for three years) in Germany, to return home as soon as the political situation allows. She highlighted that 70% of the refugees from the then Yugoslavia who were granted asylum in Germany in the 1990s had returned home after the war. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)