Kretschmer calls for upper limit on refugee intake

Ahead of Wednesday's planned talks on asylum policy with Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Saxony's Minister President Michael Kretschmer has called for an upper limit on the number of refugees Germany can accept. "50,000 or 60,000 refugees per year - that can't be more for the next few years because we have such a huge integration effort," the CDU politician told Bild (Tuesday). According to Kretschmer, this upper limit is necessary until 2030 because Germany lacks sufficient reception capacity. "If you look at the municipalities, if you look at how many integration courses there are and how many German courses there are, what the situation is like in schools - then we have to make these integration efforts first."

The head of government also spoke out in favor of renewing the EU-Turkey agreement. "We must ensure with Turkey that this agreement, which Ms Merkel negotiated at the time, is revived. Turkey must take care of these people. We are helping financially," said Kretschmer. Turkey and the EU signed a refugee pact in 2016 in which Ankara pledged to take action against irregular migration. Part of the agreement was, among other things, that the EU could send back refugees and migrants who come to the Greek islands illegally via Turkey.

Kretschmer has now once again called for more consistent deportations. Every rejected asylum seeker who is not deported is "a failure of the state, is a defeat and is unacceptable because the population does not accept it either". The Minister President called for more deportation agreements. The German government must also stop providing development aid to countries that do not take back rejected asylum seekers. "We must have these safe return agreements. We want to deport as countries, but we keep failing because these countries of origin won't take refugees back. And to be honest, it cannot be that we pay development aid on a large scale, but these countries and then do not take back their citizens," said Kretschmer.