The German Interior Ministry wants to stop migrants ever reaching Europe’s Mediterranean coast by picking them up at sea and returning them to Africa, the Welt am Sonntag newspaper reported on Sunday.
In what would be a huge shift for a country with one of the most generous asylum policies, the ministry says the European Union should adopt an Australian-style system under which migrants intercepted at sea are sent for processing at camps in third countries.
“The elimination of the prospect of reaching the European coast could convince migrants to avoid embarking on the life-threatening and costly journey in the first place,” the paper quoted a ministry spokeswoman as saying.
“The goal must be to remove the basis for people-smuggling organizations and to save migrants from the life-threatening journey.”
The ministry’s proposal calls for migrants picked up in the Mediterranean – most of whom set off from conflict-torn Libya – to be sent to Tunisia, Egypt or other north African states to apply for asylum from there.
If their asylum applications are accepted, the migrants could then be transported safely to Europe.
The ministry is headed by Thomas 
, a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative Christian Democrats. Merkel has been under fire for her open-door refugee policy, with her party losing votes to the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in recent regional elections.
The ministry said there were no concrete plans or discussions at EU-level about the proposal, but opposition politicians condemned the plan.
Bernd Riexinger, head of the opposition Left party, said it would be “a humanitarian scandal and a further step toward elimination of the right to asylum,” the paper reported.
He said asylum applications should be filed in Germany to ensure applicants had access to legal help and he called Australia’s treatment of migrants “absolutely unacceptable”.
More than 2,200 migrants were rescued in the Mediterranean in a single day on Saturday and 10 bodies were recovered, Italy’s coast guard said.
The International Organization for Migration said last week that 159,496 people had reach Italy by sea this year and 4,220 died trying – a sharp increase from 3,777 in the whole of 2015. (via Reuters)
Medicines Sans Frontiers recuse operation in Mediterranean Sea on Nov 4: SF The @MSF_Sea Bourbon Argos rescued 868 refugees over 10 continuous hours of operations today.
The Germans are increasingly showing their true Nazi character, and trying to create a fourth Reich. Refusing to obey international law — especially on humanitarian protection — is one of the many Nazi characteristics.
You still here commenting about all economic migrants stories with your expertise in international law. Get out from behind your screen, get some fresh air, enjoy life a little
You still posting all over the web with your far right propaganda and lies? You should go to Germany, find a nice neo-Nazi group to join…
Lies ? Where? More delusional comments from mr xenos.
These people are fleeing war as well ? 2200 people , certainly all men. Seems legit….
Na I’m fine here in mytilene but thsnks for your concern. You seem to be obsessed about everybody’s living arrangements. Suprised you had time to get your nose out of “how to be a international law expert 101” and “left wing propaganda for idiots “
You are a fascist moron, who has no interest in reality. Feel free to make your delusional and lying posts: nobody here takes you seriously.
Maybe you measure manhood by the approval of forum members, I don’t. Sooooo I’m
Wrong am I ? Are they all fleeing war ? Evidence please. I note you specialise in petty name calling, desperate actions of a widdle boy, But no data or facts to support you. Only bile you seem to projectile vomit is ” everyone is breaking the law,from Australia to Germany to Greece ” waaaaa I’m right , youre wrong, take millions of economic migrants without limititation “waaaa.
It means Australia is a nazi country too?
Sure it is, just like the US it’s an act of piracy, an illegal racist construct of European master race squatting a whole continent, forcing real Australians to speak their ugly European Barbarian languages instead of learning one Australian word – it’s terrorism since 1492.
Australia is now an international renegade for its treatment of refugees. Even the Ozzies are upset about it, with a retired Attorney General asking to be sent to the prison island where they keep the refugees, so that they can never have a decent normal life in Australian society. Fascist? Most definitely. It’s fits the definition perfectly, as well as being illegal.
Mr illegal strike again
Talking about yourself, again? I should see a psychiatrist, if I were you.
Why does that man insist on embarrassing us Germans every time he opens his mouth?! And once again all that is left to me is to keep pointing out that not all of us here feel and think that way…