Germany’s Merkel set to unveil plans to boost migrant deportations

PanARMENIAN.Net - German Chancellor Angela Merkel is set to unveil plans to significantly increase deportations of failed asylum seekers, BBC News reports.

The measures include allowing access to asylum seekers' phones and Sim cards to verify their identities and increasing the amount paid to voluntary returnees.

Migration has become a heavily politicised issue in Germany ahead of elections later this year.

An asylum seeker killed 12 people at a Berlin Christmas market in December.

The case of Anis Amri, who Tunisia refused to take back after his asylum bid was rejected, has increased pressure on Merkel's government.

The German chancellor is meeting with state leaders later to discuss a new 16-point plan to speed up deportations.

The plan, which was leaked to German media, says that a new deportation co-ordination centre will be set up in Berlin.

Exit centres could also be set up to hold rejected asylum seekers in the days or weeks before they are deported.

The federal government also plans to spend €90m this year as part of repatriation and reintegration programs. More money will be given to voluntary returnees who make their decision quickly.

Some 890,000 asylum seekers arrived in Germany in 2015. Merkel's decision to leave the borders open while other European states were closing theirs dented her popularity and led to the rise of anti-immigrant party Alternative for Germany (AfD).