Germany’s new govt orders border police to reject asylum seekers

BERLIN: Germany´s new government under Chancellor Friedrich Merz has ordered border police to reject undocumented migrants including asylum seekers, Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt said on Wednesday.

Dobrindt said he was issuing an order “to ensure that the police can make such pushbacks”, adding that exceptions would be made for “vulnerable groups” including pregnant women and children.

A day after Merz was sworn in, his new government also said it was boosting its border police as part of a promised crackdown on irregular immigration. The Bild daily said Dobrindt had given an order for 2,000 to 3,000 extra federal officers to be sent to Germany´s borders, in addition to the 11,000 already in place.

He said the aim was to guarantee “humanity and order”, adding that order should be “given greater weight and strength than may have been seen in the past”. Merz has argued that tough measures are needed to ease voters´ concerns and to halt the rise of the far-right and anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AFD) party.

The AfD won a record of more than 20 percent in the February elections, second only to Merz´s conservative CDU/CSU alliance, and has since risen further in opinion polls, at times coming first.

News outlet Der Spiegel reported that after Dobrindt had ordered the extra police to be deployed, they would have to work shifts of up to 12 hours a day to enforce the new regime.