Migration: CDU boss: Declare more states to be safe countries of origin

CDU leader Friedrich Merz is urging other countries to be declared so-called safe countries of origin in order to facilitate deportations there.

“The basic right to asylum has limits in the recognition of the actual reasons for asylum,” said Merz, who is also the leader of the Union faction in the Bundestag, the newspapers of the Funke media group. “Moldova, Georgia, Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria and India are countries of origin with recognition rates in the per thousand range. These countries must be recognized as safe countries of origin so that we can immediately return them.”

The traffic light government of Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) wants to include at least Georgia and Moldova in the list of safe countries of origin. The cabinet passed a corresponding bill on Wednesday. However, the approval of the Bundestag and Bundesrat is still pending.

Safe countries of origin are countries where it is generally assumed that there is neither persecution nor inhuman or degrading treatment and that the foreigner concerned is not threatened with any serious harm in his home country. This currently applies to the member states of the European Union, Ghana, Senegal, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, North Macedonia, Albania, Kosovo and Montenegro.

CDU leader Merz accused the Greens in the traffic light coalition of blocking the expulsion of other safe countries of origin. Merz pointed out that there is now “the second major refugee crisis after 2015/2016”. “It’s an enormous burden. The municipalities can’t take it anymore, and the federal government must finally take that seriously.”