Germany’s incoming govt agrees to get tougher on illegal migration

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.

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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.

Meanwhile, German conservatives under Friedrich Merz also agreed a coalition deal with the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD), aiming to revive growth in Europe’s largest economy just as a global trade war threatens recession.

The deal caps weeks of haggling between chancellor-in-waiting Merz and the SPD after he topped elections in February but fell well short of a majority, with the far-right Alternative for Germany surging into second place.

Pressure to reach a deal has taken on new urgency as the government will take charge at a time of global turbulence in an escalating trade conflict sparked by US President Donald Trump’s sweeping import tariffs.