German Chancellor Angela Merkel's incoming interior minister today vowed to take a tough line against convicted criminal migrants and speed up repatriations of rejected asylum seekers.
Horst Seehofer, of Merkel's conservative Bavarian sister party the CSU, also promised a broader “zero-tolerance” law and order drive under their new government to be launched Wednesday.
Seehofer was long the harshest critic within Merkel's conservative bloc of her decision to open Germany's borders to a mass influx of refugees and migrants since 2015.
Most of those who came across the Balkans route passed through Seehofer's southern state of Bavaria, at times more than 10,000 a day, sparking a strong backlash in the region.
In an interview with newspaper Bild am Sonntag, Seehofer said that as the new head of an expanded ministry of interior and homeland affairs, he was working on a “masterplan for speedier asylum procedures and consistent deportations”.