Chancellor Friedrich Merz will scrap a rule that offers legal support to asylum seekers awaiting to be deported, British newspaper The Telegraph reports.
The law, passed by a previous government, was allegedly being used to delay deportation cases, according to Merz’s supporters. However, in response to recent terror attacks by migrants who had no legal right to be in Germany, the ruling CDU/CSU party wants deportation procedures to be expedited.
‘We want the rate of deportations to increase, but many deportations fail due to people going into hiding or due to various legal and practical obstacles,’ senior politicians from Merz’s Christian Democrats party told The Telegraph.
Lawmakers are worried that these hold-ups make it more likely that asylum seekers will go into hiding.
In Germany, the proposed new law has caused controversy, with some experts cautioning that it may lead to the wrongful detention of asylum seekers.
‘Constitutionally questionable’ and undemocratic, the proposal has been denounced by the German refugee rights group Pro Asyl.
However, Germany’s interior ministry defended plans to do away with the requirement that asylum seekers receive legal assistance, saying that doing so would eliminate “obstacles which keep us from preventing illegal migration.”
The ministry claimed that the introduction of mandatory legal representation under the previous administration was an effort to keep those who were forced to leave the country from being deported, even after all other administrative, judicial, and appeal processes had determined that they had no right to stay in Germany.
The proposed new law is a component of a larger set of migration reforms that Merz’s cabinet approved in June.
In an attempt to win back support from voters attracted to the far-right Alternative for Germany, which achieved historic victories in the February federal election,
Germany’s new government has already imposed restrictions on migration, including stopping family reunification and resettlement programs.
The German parliament is anticipated to vote on the package shortly.
