German Chancellor Angela Merkel is set to introduce new measures aimed at speeding up the deportation of failed asylum seekers. The plans come as her party tries to project a tougher line on immigration and border security ahead of elections in September.
Two recent terror attacks in Germany – a truck attack at a Berlin Christmas market and a suicide bombing, the country’s first, in Ansbach – were carried out by migrants whose asylum bids had been rejected, but who had not been deported. Both attackers had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group.
Merkel is meeting the leaders of the country’s 16 federal states on Thursday evening to discuss a 16-point plan aimed at addressing shortcomings in the deportation system, which is currently handled at state level.