Germany's incoming government agrees to get tougher on illegal migration
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Germany's chancellor-in-waiting and leader of the Christian Democratic Union party (CDU) Friedrich Merz, Christian Social Union (CSU) leader and Bavarian Premier Markus Soeder, co-leaders of the Social Democratic party (SPD) Saskia Esken and Lars Klingbeil pose for pictures as they attend a press conference after reaching an agreement on their coalition government in Berlin, Germany, April 9, 2025. REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch
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BERLIN - Germany's future government of conservatives and centre-left Social Democrats on Wednesday agreed on measures aimed at curbing illegal migration, including rejecting asylum seekers at borders, enabling deportations to Syria and suspending family reunions.
The parties want to suspend family reunification for people with a so-called subsidiary protection status for two years and to end all federal admissions programmes for refugees and not establish new programmes in the future, according to the coalition agreement document.
Asylum seekers will be rejected at the land borders in coordination with European neighbours, the document said, as migration was a key issue in the national election, following a rise of the far right and several high-profile attacks by migrants.
The future government wants to deport people to Syria and Afghanistan, starting with criminals and potentially dangerous persons and will abolish the "turbo naturalization" of migrants after three years of stay, but will maintain the citizenship reforms introduced by the previous government. REUTERS
