Merkel: We have to step up and speed up repatriation
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Thursday that her government would step up and speed up the deportation of rejected asylum seekers after hundreds of extreme right-wing demonstrators demanded it resign because of its immigration policies.
Merkel said after meeting deputies that she understands that her decision on refugees worried voters and raised concerns about the state’s ability to act and not to get out of control, according to the agency “Reuters”.
“I have made clear that we have a situation now that has not solved all the problems, especially with regard to deportations, which remains a big problem”, she told a news conference.
“The federal government will assume more responsibilities in this regard, particularly by helping to produce the required documents”, she said.
A European national movement against the “Islamization” of the West, the German anti-Islamic “Begida”, organized protests against Merkel’s decision in 2015 to open the country’s borders and receive about 1 million refugees, mostly from Muslim countries.
This has created a growing anti-immigrant sentiment and helped push the BAD party for far-right Germany to enter parliament in elections last year.
The protesters chanted slogans calling for Merkel to leave and other slogans against the German chancellor when she arrived in the city of Dresden in the state of Saxony to meet with local deputies from the Christian Democratic Union party of which she belongs.
