Germany to deport migrants, toughen asylum policy

A migrant from Syria wearing a Germany cap, stands in a temporary registration center in the village of Schwarzenborn, northeast of Frankfurt, Germany October 15, 2015.

The European Commission considers the current migrant crisis the biggest since World War II.

Germany needs to be tougher in the refugee crisis and do more to help secure Europe’s external borders, the president of the European Council has warned Angela Merkel.

He told German newspaper Welt Am Sonntag: “I understand if Germany, for historical reasons, has difficulty implementing a strict regime on its borders”.

Tusk is due to dine with Merkel on Sunday in Berlin ahead of an EU-Africa summit in Malta on Wednesday and European Union leaders meeting on refugees on Thursday.

There was confusion over the weekend over whether Germany was changing its policy on accepting refugees, after Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said Syrians would be stopped from having family members join them.

Speaking in Berlin on the 26th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, Tusk described Germany and Merkel personally as examples of the best European values.

“Do you want a Germany that is open, tolerant, compassionate, sympathising with the weaker and the poorer, in other words the Germany of Angela Merkel, or a Germany which is closed, cold and ruthless? There is only one answer”, he added.

Therefore, other European states should show solidarity towards Germany “in these hard and testing times”, he said.

Germany has already accepted a few 758,000 migrants since January this year.

“Let us not fool ourselves”.

Germany has toughened up its approach to Syrian migrants as an anti-immigrant party recorded its highest level of support. Greece does not have the infrastructure to cope with its influx of asylum seekers.