Berlin’s grand coalition is at odds over the latest proposal to master the growing refugee crisis: “transit zones” in border regions to allow the detention and swift deportation of people without hope of asylum.
As temperatures drop across Germany, and with about 40,000 asylum seekers still living in tents, state authorities around the country have demanded new efforts from Berlin to throttle the numbers of new arrivals.
The "transit zone" proposal, backed by Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU), would create camps on borders allowing week-long detention of arrivals – and immediate deportation of citizens of countries dubbed "safe origin" by Germany, such as the Balkan countries.
“Whoever has a chance of staying, Germany will help, whoever hasn’t can’t stay,” said Dr Merkel of ahead of talks with her Social Democrat (SPD) junior coalition partners.
But senior SPD ministers have already shot down as “inhumane” the idea of the transit zones as “mass camps in no-man’s land”.
"Practically speaking this cannot be implemented," said Thomas Oppermann, Bundestag floor leader of the SPD. "From a human perspective, this just isn't on,"
Mass arrivals
The transit camp idea originated with the ruling
Christian Social Union
(CSU) in Bavaria, for months the front line of mass arrivals from
Austria
. But as German public opinion hardens on the refugee crisis, leading CDU politicians in Berlin have fallen in behind the proposal. For Dr Merkel, who has insisted Germany can master the crisis, this leaves her caught between two fronts: her own party and her coalition partner.
The SPD says the plan, to take existing rules for airport transit zone procedures and impose them on entire border regions, is doomed to failure. Last year the fast-track procedure was used in 643 cases in German airports, with just 100 people refused entry.
It’s not just the SPD that is opposed: asylum groups have attacked the idea as unworkable.
"It's not possible to build a wall around Germany, mass imprisonments on the borders are illegal," said Günter Burkhardt, head of the Pro Asyl lobby group.
Germany has taken in the largest number of people arriving in the EU, with total numbers expected to reach between 800,000 and one million this year.
A month after it reimposed border controls, setting aside the Schengen free travel agreement, Berlin has informed the European Commission the status quo will continue at least until the start of next month.
“The situation at the border is such that we cannot do without them,” said a government spokeswoman.
Pressure on local authorities to find permanent accommodation for asylum seekers is growing in every corner of the country. Matters are particularly acute in Berlin where about 3,000 people – many with small children – are camping out each night to secure a place in the queue to file an asylum application.
With temperatures dropping rapidly, local volunteers have sounded the alarm.
"If this situation continues the risk will only increase that the first child dies," said Dianne Hennings, a local volunteer at the makeshift camp.
