Saxony's prime minister calls for upper limit of 200,000 refugees per year

Saxony's Minister President Michael Kretschmer believes that a figure is needed for orientation when it comes to taking in refugees. "We should agree on a realistic order of magnitude, for example 200,000 refugees per year," the CDU politician told the "Freie Presse" newspaper (Friday). That, he said, is a figure that can be used as a guide. "Then you can talk about which instruments to use to reach that number." Earlier, Bavaria's Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) had called for an upper limit of 200,000 refugees a year.

The EU could support Poland in securing its external borders and Germany has the option of controls at German borders, he said. He also said effective repatriation agreements are needed. Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria should be designated as safe countries of origin, according to him. It must also be clarified how to deal with delinquent asylum seekers.

"And it is about the questions that Italian Prime Minister Meloni has called: How high are the social benefits for asylum seekers in Germany compared to other countries in Europe? And what is the impact of this discrepancy?"