Germany to speed up asylum process

The heads of the German government’s coalition parties, Chancellor…

Germany plans to speed up repatriations of rejected asylum-seekers from new central hubs, Chancellor Angela Merkel and her coalition allies agreed Thursday, vowing to bring order to a record migrant influx. Those who seem likely to receive asylum would be placed in separate centers from those who would be deemed a security risk.

“People are to be deported by hook or by crook, so that the right to asylum is further eroded and there is a danger people will not be accorded a fair asylum procedure in accordance with the rule of law”, he said.

The compromise will mean that refugees will be processed within weeks, rather than months, although critics question how the status of an asylum-seeker can be established so quickly.

The new process for screening the refugees will focus on the reasons why they left their homes, and will consider if they are running from a few type of danger or if they merely wish a better place to live. In addition, refugees would be asked to pay part of the expenses for the German courses provided upon entering the country.

Merkel said that would involve a series of measures including a political agreement with Turkey to protect that country’s border and a resolution of the civil war in Syria, rather than shutting Germany’s frontier or setting upper limits on those who can come in.

“We took a good and important step forward”, said Merkel, whose open-door refugee policy has come in for strong criticism in Germany.

“We need to show that we are an open and a tolerant country, but also a country which respects its constitution”, she told reporters.

Separately, Finance Minister Wolfgang Schauble told the German parliament on Thursday that the cost of receiving the refugees would reach $20 billion.

Earlier, the European Commission said that three million migrants were likely to arrive in Europe by the end of 2017. They also say the number of arrivals from Balkan countries deemed safe has dropped so low that it’s barely relevant.

The United Kingdom is focusing on supporting refugee camps in the Syrian region, giving more than £1 billion in aid for the camps already and taking 20,000 vulnerable people from them.